World of Fusion 01: War of the Undead
by Higuchimon
Summary: [indefinite hiatus: see profile for details] The first strike in war involves doing as much damage as you possibly can – such as taking one of your enemy's strongest warriors and using him to get the strongest weapons. Ryou never thought he'd enjoy being a vampire but this is a whole new level. Perhaps it's a good thing he has a teacher and some new friends to help him out. [19/50]
1. Chapter 1

**Series:** World of Fusion||**Title:** War of the Undead  
**Characters:** Samejima, Ryou||**Ship:** N/A  
**Chapters:** 1-50||**Chapter Words:** 3,036||**Total Words:** 3,036  
**Genre:** Drama, Supernatural||**Rated:** PG  
**Challenges:** Diversity Writing, GX: Fused World, L2, 2000-6000 wpc; One Character Boot Camp, Marufuji Ryou, #19, rebel; Include The Word, #47, multipy; Chapter Set Boot Camp, #24, 50 chaptrs; Advent 2015-2016, GX, bonus #1: roll for fic length: between 100,000-200,000 words; Christmas Advent 2017, New Year's Special, start a new fic and update it once a week; Epic Masterclass, YGO GX, #4, AU Space  
**Notes:** Same universe as **Raised To His Word** but featuring other characters. A little backstory will appear as well.  
**Summary:** The first strike in war involves doing as much damage as you possibly can – such as taking one of your enemy's strongest warriors and using him to get the strongest weapons. Ryou never thought he'd enjoy being a vampire but this is a whole new level. Perhaps it's a good thing he has a teacher and some new friends to help him out.

* * *

_They're everywhere!_ Samejima wasn't as good at running as he'd been in his youth. But he tried. Given the only option – well, that wasn't one that he wanted to entertain.

He hurried along, breath catching in his throat, sweat pouring down his cheeks, thorns tearing at his clothes, and the arms of zombies reaching out for him, undead moans filling his ears.

This was _not_ what he wanted. He tried his best to get away from them, but they didn't have to breathe the way that he did. His heart thudded in his chest and he clawed sweat away from his eyes as best that he could.

He wasn't sure anymore of how long he'd run, only that it was too long. He'd fled from the zombies since shortly before sunset and now the moon would rise soon. He didn't even know where he was anymore. He'd started off in a slightly larger than average town, one protected by strong stone walls and a well-trained militia of warriors, spellcasters, and duelists, and now struggled his way through a thick forest that seemed intent on killing him. He'd barely been halfway through it when the zombies started to rise from underneath trees and bushes all around him.

Samejima spent most of his time when he wasn't teaching at the Cyber Dojo traveling to all the villages, towns, and cities that he could find, keeping alive the tales of the old time, the time before the Great Fusion.

The time before monsters ruled this world as much as humans did, if not more so. There weren't very many who remembered anymore. Those who did were old – too old. One day they would be gone and if the stories didn't keep being told, then Samejima worried that the old times would be forgotten forever.

At the moment, the idea of just peacefully passing away in his sleep appealed to Samejima more than anything else. It would be a distinct improvement over being torn to shreds and devoured alive.

He cast enough of a glance back to see that the zombie horde wasn't anywhere as far back as he wanted it to be. He scrambled even faster, not even daring to look down for potential stones in his path.

Tree branches cracked against his upraised arms as he plunged forward. What he could see ahead of himself cheered his heart up for a few breaths – the forest thinned and a broad plain spread out ahead of him. It would make running that much easier. Maybe he could even get out of their reach.

He wanted to believe that so very much. But in his deepest heart, he couldn't do it. He couldn't believe that he'd be safe, not when he could feel the brush of their decaying fingers far too close. Not enough to catch, not enough to hold, but too close altogether.

_I need people. Warriors. Someone who can destroy them all._

Zombie hordes weren't unknown in this world. But bringing zombies near people's homes wasn't the brightest of ideas, and Samejima knew that even as he kept running, running, and _running_.

And he stumbled. He fell, just a few steps from the end of the forest, trying to breathe and not at all doing a good job of it. He tried to grab for his deck; the last chance that he had. Perhaps the only chance that he had now.

"C-Cyber..." He panted; he'd put so much of his energy into running away that he wasn't sure if he had enough left to actually call his greatest partner. The zombies encircled him, gray arms reaching, lunging for him. He forced himself to spit out the words before rotting teeth broke his skin. "Cyber Ogre! Come forth!"

Everyone knew the rules of summoning a monster – once the monster bonded to oneself, then the energy came from the duelist. The stronger the monster, the more energy it drew.

A Level Five monster like Cyber Ogre would draw a significant amount of energy from him, but what else did he have to use it for now?

At least he didn't have to give orders. The moment Cyber Ogre appeared before him, the silver-armored creature attacked, blasting the zombies before them into twitching remnants with a powerful stream of energies from its eyes. Samejima dragged in another few breaths, trying to get to his feet and avoid the oncoming zombies at the same time.

It wasn't all that successful. No sooner did he try to push himself up but a sharp pain shot up his left leg and he had to seize onto the nearest tree to make certain he didn't pitch headlong down again. He hugged onto the branch, breathing harder, and stared downward. He couldn't see much damage and there wasn't time enough to look closer, not when the zombies had thinned out but still circled the area, moaning and yearning for flesh.

Trapped. No longer able to move, and he would run out of energy for Cyber Ogre all too soon. Cyber Ogre 2 might have better chances of clearing out the horde, but he didn't have the energy it would take to maintain a Level Seven monster, not now.

He'd at least put up a good fight. He had to hope that someone would carry on the legacy of the old days. There were few of them left from either world who recalled all the old tales that he did.

Samejima pulled his head up and prepared to glare at the zombies as Cyber Ogre began to flicker away and the undead monstrosity drew in closer. He pressed his lips together, hoping he could keep the scream behind them.

From behind the zombies, something came. Samejima couldn't tell what it was, only that it was fast, far faster than any of the zombies, and it picked them off in a matter of moments. One firm hand touched his collar – and this didn't have the grip that a zombie did. This was the hand of someone with a will that didn't focus around eating mindlessly.

Whoever it was jerked him upward into the trees and to the safety of a broad span of branches, too high for zombies to reach. A voice spoke in an oddly familiar growl.

"Stay here. I'll finish them."

Samejima started to ask questions. He had a lot of them, but each one died when he looked back down in time to see someone wearing a black cloak – and that was all he could see of them from this angle – dart into the thick of the zombies. Even with Cyber Ogre's efforts, there still nearly fifty of the creatures, more than enough that no one Samejima knew would have wanted to wade into the center of without a great deal of backup.

This person had no one. If he had a deck, he didn't use it. Instead, he simply battled the monsters himself, hands and feet cracking this way and that, and even _biting_ into them. Samejima rubbed his eyes and tried not to notice how the stench of the undead increased as the zombies were shredded to nothing more than vaguely twitching bits that could never hurt someone else again.

With a grace so great as to appear inhuman, the newcomer leaped up to land beside Samejima. As he'd thought, the other wore a thick black hooded cloak that concealed their face. He coughed twice, wincing at the pain in his leg that hadn't done much more than fade a trifle in the ensuing handful of moments.

"Thank you, sir." He wasn't certain of who this was, though that sense of familiarity nagged at him. "But you bit them..." And he couldn't believe that anyone would _do_ that! "And they bit you. I saw them. You're going to need help."

One of the good parts about this world in these days was that there were sorcerers, magicians, and healers who could at least delay the onset of zombie-ism if one reached them in time. Samejima wasn't sure where someone of that level of skill could be, but perhaps this person did.

A low laugh issued from behind the cloak's hood. "No, I won't. A good bath, but if they wanted me undead, then they're five years too late on that."

Samejima blinked; he _knew_ that voice. It had been years since he'd heard it but he knew it regardless. He swallowed, leaning closer.

"R-Ryou?"

The stranger slipped the cloak's hood down to his shoulders and Samejima's heart spasmed at the sight of his best student ever, Marufuji Ryou – a few years older since when he'd departed the Cyber Dojo, but not as many as he _should_ have been. He _should_ have been at least fifteen years older. But he wasn't.

Ryou smiled. It really wasn't a smile of pleasure – it was a smile of evidence. Sharp canines gleamed in his mouth – the fangs of a vampire.

Samejima swallowed. "Oh. You're – you've -"

"Yes. She turned me almost seven years ago." Ryou eyed him carefully, whatever thoughts going through his mind hidden behind those eyes that gave away nothing. "You're hurt, you're tired, and I think you're lost."

Samejima had to nod his head in agreement. "I couldn't keep track of where I was going when I was running." It wasn't his finest hour by far.

"Come with me, then. I have somewhere I can take you and someone who can help you." Ryou glanced downward before he took a grip on Samejima's collar again. "I think this place is safe enough for now."

Most of Samejima's questions hadn't been answered yet. He wasn't going to complain about having more time with his former student if there was a chance that he could get them answered. He had just enough time to nod his agreement before Ryou pulled them both down to the ground.

One question jarred out when they hit bottom. "I wouldn't have thought a vampire would want to be in a forest."

"I was looking for food. The zombies drove off most of the game – what they didn't take for themselves." Ryou's lip curled. "I'll have to hunt somewhere else."

Samejima wasn't at all sure of how to feel about that. He adjusted his collar and remembered to put Cyber Ogre's card back into his deck holder. "I hope you don't consider me prey."

"I wouldn't." Ryou offered a breath of a smile – though Samejima didn't think that he'd breathed more than he had to all this time. Just enough to speak and no more. "There are some who might but this is _my_ territory." He cast a scornful glance to the shuddering pieces of zombie they walked through. "They never asked my permission to come here, let alone eat here."

Samejima held himself back from swallowing. He really did not want to know more details – and yet he did, a strange combination of attraction and revulsion.

"Where are we going?" He asked instead. Perhaps that would be a better question than anything about how matters stood between vampires and zombies – and why Ryou held a territory all of his own.

"To the closest village. It's called Sunsdown – they know what I am there. Not everywhere around here does."

Samejima nodded, moving along carefully. He didn't think that he'd done more than perhaps jar his leg and it would improve after rest and food. He wasn't going to slow Ryou down – at least not very much. Ryou moved along with a grace that Samejima had never seen in him before. Some of that could be attributed to the passage of time, but the absolute silence of his footfalls and the way that he tilted his head, always alert for the smallest bit of sound and analyzing them in a matter of seconds, all of those spoke so clearly of his new nature.

He couldn't stay quiet forever. "How did it happen, Ryou? How did you -" A dozen potential ways flickered through his thoughts, but he had to know the truth.

"Her name is Camula," Ryou said, gaze turning to the spreading plain as they entered it. "She chose to turn me instead of just killing me." He shook his head. "It's nothing that you need to know."

Samejima would've argued the point, if he'd had more to argue with. But he'd taught Ryou for five years and he knew very well just how stubborn the other could be. Perhaps he'd find out later.

* * *

_No, my teacher. You don't need to know and you never will._

Ryou had no intention of letting anyone know what happened to him. What they would need to know consisted of the fact Camula turned him and nothing else. Camula knew the truth; so did Lord Ruthven. Technically the servants at their castle knew, but they all knew not to approach him on the subject.

For now it didn't matter. For now he just needed to guide Samejima to Sunsdown and make certain he was taken care of and sent on the way to the Cyber Dojo, or wherever he needed to go. He also needed to find someone to feed off of. At least he could find that in Sunsdown. The village provided food for him whenever he passed through and couldn't provide for himself.

Given that he'd also cleaned out this zombie horde, they'd be more than glad enough to offer up someone.

He didn't even want to let on how much he loathed zombies. They were all undead, but at least vampires could _think_ and didn't have to kill their prey unless they chose to. Zombies were mindless beasts that destroyed everything they touched. Vampires were – different.

Ryou pressed his lips together and tried not to shake his head, not wanting to attract attention from Samejima, who would ask more questions that he wasn't in the mood to answer. He wasn't sure if he would ever be able to answer all of the questions that Samejima most likely had.

_I'll warn him of the war and where the zombies lurk. And make sure he gets to a safe place outside of that._ He could do that much for his old teacher.

Walking to Sunsdown would take a minimum of a couple of hours. He could have done it so much quicker if he could fly there himself. But Samejima didn't look as if the idea of flying would fit very well with him, and in this area with a potential incursion by the enemy undead, Ryou wanted to be on the ground where he could shred the zombies if he needed to.

He glanced down at his hands and wondered if he could also get those of Sunsdown to provide a good hot bath for him. He didn't sweat – vampires produced very few fluids of their own – but he would feel so much better once he got the rank stench and tiny bits of zombie off of him.

A thought crossed his mind as he did his best to scrape the quivering zombie bits off of himself. He glanced behind them to where the forest still stretched out behind them, a forest where he'd torn zombies to shred in moments.

Zombies who shouldn't have been there. They could only come there if guided by their leader, or if one of the necromancer types created an original zombie in that forest or nearby it.

"I think we might need to go faster." His first thoughts on the subject be damned. Getting to Sunsdown as fast as possible now took precedence.

"Why?" Samejima glanced up, a furrow of strain between his eyes. "Is there a problem?"

"We're relatively close to Sunsdown. This horde could only be part of the greater zombie horde trying to invade the place."

Samejima startled, eyes rounding in fear. "How far are we from it?"

"For zombies? Too close. Especially if they have a strong leader." So many of those who could claim that distinction filled his thoughts. He ignored those thoughts for now in favor of action. "Can you ride?"

He wouldn't have asked if he hadn't realized how unlikely it was that the horde be there in the first place. Sunsdown wasn't going to fall to zombies if he had anything to say about it.

Samejima nodded, worry rising to smother the strain and fear. "Of course."

Ryou dipped one hand underneath his cloak to where he kept his deck and pulled out one of his cards. He would have preferred Cyber Dragon for power, but Cyber Phoenix's speed would get them there fast enough.

"Cyber Phoenix!"

Silver wings spread over them both and Cyber Phoenix let loose a sparkling cry upon appearance. The great metallic bird bent a sharp beak down and Ryou rested one hand on it for a few seconds.

"We're going to Sunsdown," he told his monster. "Can you get us there fast?"

Cyber Phoenix nodded, then lowered himself so that they could both get on. Ryou made certain Samejima rested on Cyber Phoenix's back firmly before he leaped up there himself, resting his hands on the broad neck.

"Then let's go!"

Cyber Phoenix let loose a cry of delight in being able to serve their master, spread the wings to gleam bright in the starlight, and took off.

A pair of relatively in shape humans would've taken at least two hours to reach Sunsdown from where they were. A vast horde of zombies could've run their way there in perhaps half the time – no great time for those in anticipation of dinner at the end.

Cyber Phoenix took perhaps five minutes, more because the monster needed to be certain they didn't overshoot the destination than for a lack of speed. Ryou watched the land below for any sign of zombies; they could hide in very unexpected places and what didn't look like a zombie could turn into a haunt of the abominations in moments.

But what he saw angered him even more than a zombie invasion of one of those places underneath his protection. He didn't think Samejima could hear it, but the terrified cry rose up clear to his enhanced ears as they came to a halt over Sunsdown.

"Fire! Fire! We're on fire!"

* * *

**To Be Continued**

**Notes:** This gets updated twice a week. See you on Wednesday!


	2. Chapter 2

**Series:** World of Fusion||**Title:** War of the Undead  
**Characters:** Samejima, Ryou, OC||**Ship:** N/A  
**Chapters:** 2-50||**Chapter Words:** 3,053||**Total Words:** 6,089  
**Genre:** Drama, Supernatural||**Rated:** PG  
**Challenges:** Diversity Writing, GX: Fused World, L2, 2000-6000 wpc; One Character Boot Camp, Marufuji Ryou, #19, rebel; Include The Word, #47, multipy; Chapter Set Boot Camp, #24, 50 chaptrs; Advent 2015-2016, GX, bonus #1: roll for fic length: between 100,000-200,000 words; Christmas Advent 2017, New Year's Special, start a new fic and update it once a week; Epic Masterclass, YGO GX, #4, AU Space  
**Notes:** Same universe as **Raised To His Word** but featuring other characters. A little backstory will appear as well.  
**Summary:** The first strike in war involves doing as much damage as you possibly can – such as taking one of your enemy's strongest warriors and using him to get the strongest weapons. Ryou never thought he'd enjoy being a vampire but this is a whole new level. Perhaps it's a good thing he has a teacher and some new friends to help him out.

* * *

Sunsdown existed in a fold of the western mountains, with a single stream cascading from the higher peaks to circle around it on the southern edge. Surrounded on all four sides by a well-made wall, it took much of the architecture from those places that existed in the original worlds of spirits.

Which meant that a lot of the roofs had been thatched – or they had been until now, as fingers of fire blazed upward, outlining the village inhabitants as they scurried here and there, searching for any way to extinguish the flames.

Ryou thanked the fact his fangs only emerged when he willed it. Otherwise, the way he gnashed his teeth would've caused a great deal more damage than he wanted. He glanced towards Samejima.

"Stay up here. I'm going to deal with this."

He waited no longer than that, leaping off of Cyber Phoenix and landing right in the center of town. No sooner had he hit ground than a particular stench assaulted his nostrils.

Zombies. _Always_ zombies. Why were they here in the first place?

He'd work it out later. For now, he seized hold of the first human that tried to run screaming past him and whirled him around to stare into the face of a terrified human.

"Calm down. Are there any water mages in town?"

The human – Ryou hadn't been here in some time so he wasn't certain of their name – shook his head. "We don't have _any_ mages! Magic is – we are – we're a _clean_ town!"

Ryou pressed his lips together even harder before he released the other. "Get water from the stream and start putting the fires out. You're going to lose the town if you don't all work together."

He would have to get this nonsense about no mages settled once the fire had been quenched and the zombies taken care of. For now, he just shoved the man towards the stream and started for the next human he saw.

This proved more of an issue than he'd initially thought, as the next human swung towards him with some sort of talisman in one hand.

"Back, monster! Being of darkness! Creature of foulness!" The man shrieked at the top of his lungs, thrusting the talisman toward him. "I will have none of your kind in this place! Get back!"

Ryou blinked, staring at the talisman, then at the man who railed at him over and over, spittle flying from his lips. The talisman held no power at all; anyone with the ability to sense magic or items of power of any kind could tell that. This was little more than a bundle of twigs and stones badly woven together.

"Sunsdown is on fire," Ryou told him bluntly. "Deal with that before you attempt to get rid of those trying to help."

He tossed the would-be priest – or whatever – to one side and moved onward. He could still hear the man ranting behind him and paid only minimal attention. That sort of person could be a pain; he'd had to deal with them before. And he would probably have to do so again once this situation cleared up.

Ryou didn't waste his time trying to round up every human. He just grabbed hold of the ones who looked as if they could listen to instructions without him having to overwhelm their minds and got them busy sorting things out. The longer he searched through the streets, the stronger the stench of zombies grew, but he knew that he hadn't seen a single one yet.

Instinct saved him more than anything else did. He darted up to the top of one of the few buildings not on fire, given as the roof was tiled instead of thatched, just in time to avoid a flaming arrow that shot directly at where he'd just stood.

"Stand still, bloodsucker," a sharp voice snapped, without a hint of zombie undertones to it. "Creatures like you should lay down and stay dead."

Ryou stayed where he was, his eyes and ears searching for the source of the voice. It didn't take that long – every sense of his was tuned to finding creatures in the shadows. The zombie scent didn't come from this person, but the flaming arrows he could now see in the thatched roofs definitely did.

"Now isn't the time for philosophy. Why are you trying to burn this place down?" Ryou didn't move but he kept himself ready to move.

The stranger in the shadows smiled. "All places that harbor creatures of your type should be destroyed. Cleansed by fire."

Ryou held back the exasperated sigh he wanted to sigh. He found himself more interested in darting off to another roof, to avoid the fresh set of arrows that came within a few heartbeats of piercing him.

Sunsdown hadn't ever been like this before. He'd only last seen it a handful of months earlier, but then they'd _welcomed_ him. He'd never forced his presence on them, but they knew as well as he did that living in his territory meant they owed a certain amount of allegiance to him.

A tiny part of Ryou wanted to argue with their whole "cleansing by fire" nonsense. He knew that he didn't have the time, though. Those locals who could were already working to get the fires under control. He could see Cyber Phoenix still keeping watch from above; the energy he had to sustain the monster's presence wouldn't run out any time soon. Vampires could maintain their spirits for much longer than humans could, after all.

But a greater part of him called to just kill this ridiculous fool, find the zombie who had some sort of hand in all of this, and finish _him_ as well. He breathed in carefully; the stench of zombies remained so strong that he couldn't believe there wasn't a horde right in sight.

More arrows clattered; there had to be more than one archer there. Though this time when he settled elsewhere and had a precious few seconds to scan the area, he still couldn't see anything.

"Don't waste your time, bloodsucker," the one who'd spoken earlier declared. That was the only one he could identify at the moment. "You'll see no one that we don't want you to see. Before the sun rises, this place will be destroyed and all of those who once dwelled within it recruited to our cause."

Again he smiled, a bit wider and far more satisfied with himself. "And the only reason _you_ might survive to see the sunrise is so that we can stake you out in it."

Oh, that wasn't going to happen. Ryou didn't especially enjoy being what he was, but he refused to lie down and die – again – to satisfy someone else's pleasures.

"What sort of nonsense do you claim as your cause?" Ryou shifted cautiously. The more he could get them to talk, the more he'd know about how to close all of this down and restore relative peace to the area. They would need that, especially if there were zombies in the area.

And he could not get that zombie stench out of his nostrils. It kept him distracted and he hated that. Being the target of arrows wasn't ever a good way to spend the night either. Putting them both together made it all even worse.

"Now, I could tell you that this is none of your concern, as you won't be around to see it, or I could tell you everything, so you go to your true eternal rest in the certain knowledge that nothing you could have ever done will stop it." A soft huff of laughter. "Truly, I can't decide which will amuse me more."

He raised one hand in a gesture that Ryou didn't recognize but wasn't going to take lightly. Just as well, because the moment Ryou leaped off of the roof, even more arrows riddled where he'd stood. He found out too late that several of those did indeed hit a target: his cloak, pinning it to the rooftop.

One of those arrows even came close enough to graze his leg; not enough of a wound to cause real pain or trouble but enough so that Ryou feared if he couldn't get out of there, the next volley would pincushion him.

"We've trained very well in this, bloodsucker," the lead arched taunted him. "You might as well surrender."

Ryou bared his teeth. It was the closest he felt like to smiling at the moment. "I don't think so."

His cloak wasn't that important to him. He twisted and _flickered_, a movement so quick that human eyes would not be able to follow him, arching upward so close that he could have met Samejima's staring eyes with his own if he hadn't needed to keep all of his attention on the mess going on below. When he dropped back down, he stood right behind the archer, his hand now resting on the man's throat, sharp nails on the pulse of his blood.

"Have your servants leave this place," he ordered. "If you have a quarrel with vampires, keep the humans out of it."

The lead archer didn't move a muscle. Ryou couldn't see his expression, but as close as he stood now, he could scent if fear flowed through the other – and it didn't. Not for so much as a breath.

Something wasn't at all right here. Ryou at once dismissed the idea of this being an illusion of any kind. An illusion wouldn't have the body heat that he could definitely tell, and this close, he could absolutely tell the other had blood in his veins. He couldn't recognize every emotion from scent alone, but just the tilt of the shoulders, the way that the other waited, nothing was as it should be here.

A noise. Little more than a _swish_ as something flew through the air that wasn't an arrow. It wasn't magic; magic made no noise when it was cast, only when it struck the target. Ryou, so focused on figuring out what was going on with the archer, barely managed to turn his head in time to realize what the problem was.

Even his eyes couldn't see it in the darkness, since it was black as night itself. Little more than a shape darker than the skies above, and it flew over to ghost down around him, wrapping him in bonds that drew in tighter moment by moment, bringing him down to the ground.

The archer leaned over and nudged him with one foot. "Now, I still haven't made up my mind. Do I go ahead and dispose of you or wait until sunrise? Exactly how much do I want to see you suffer? How much _should_ you suffer?"

Ryou's fingers clawed at the net wrapped around him; a normal net he could've shredded in mere moments. Normal tents were made of simple materials that were good for catching ordinary creatures that weren't vampires. This seemed to suck out all of the energy and strength from him the longer he remained entangled in it.

"Oh, don't even try to get out of there. No matter how you try, that won't work. The net was crafted by the same mages who created Anti-Magic Arrows and works on the same principal – your strength and most of your abilities won't work while it's on you. In fact, the ability to maintain spirits should be fading out very soon."

Again the archer nudged him with a foot, a trifle harder this time. "So that old man up there on your metal bird is going to fall down very, very hard, and when he dies… we can get what we want."

Ryou froze, if only for a heartbeat. He jerked his head up to see where Cyber Phoenix hovered above them. "Go! Get Master Samejima somewhere safe!"

He didn't have the faintest idea of exactly what these folk meant by what they wanted or even how Samejima's presence would help that. But that didn't matter, not now. He could see Cyber Phoenix arching off; he fed the creature as much as he could in order to keep it steady.

"Oh, how _foolish_," the archer crooned, leaning closer to Ryou. "I should've known that you'd try something like that. I think I'll keep you around for a while. Seeing you flail helplessly is far more entertaining than I thought it would be. But for right now – good night."

Ryou didn't dare try to take his focus off of Cyber Phoenix. He wasn't certain if it would have made a difference if he had. There wasn't even a moment of change. For a heartbeat everything was as it was, himself tied in the net and Samejima and Cyber Phoenix up there.

Then, there wasn't anything but deepest darkness.

* * *

Samejima couldn't be certain of what happened below him. The fires lit up everything, but so little of it made sense. People moved this way and that; he could tell some were going to the stream and back again, trying their best to put the fire out. From where Samejima stood he thought that it worked, if slowly.

But he wanted more than anything else to watch Ryou and make certain he was all right. He never quite lost his need to watch over his students, even when they'd proven they didn't need that supervision. He hadn't convinced himself Ryou didn't need it, regardless of how fierce he was as a vampire.

Seeing Ryou pinned by arrows and then wrapped in an anti-magical net of some kind made him want to jump right down there and do his best to rescue him. The first moment he began to shift his weight, Cyber Phoenix rose upward, a silent warning that he wasn't to do that.

A moment to think – about all that he had – told him that while his leg didn't hurt to the extent it had when he'd first injured it, he still wasn't in the best of condition. Scarcely had the thought formed before Cyber Phoenix let loose a sharp cry and began to surge forward, away from Sunsdown.

"What are you doing? He's still down there!" Samejima could hear very little aside from tiny voices that made no sense, but something was clearly going on, and he didn't know what it was.

**There's danger.**

The voice of Cyber Ogre. He so seldom spoke that Samejima didn't always remember that he could. But now he tensed himself over Cyber Phoenix's shoulders and hoped that they could get somewhere safe soon.

Cyber Phoenix swept forward, wings cutting through the cool night air, and with every moment, Samejima could feel something wasn't right. He focused his thoughts and touched on the deck holder at his waist.

"What is it, old friend? What's the danger?"

**I don't know. But your student cannot sustain Cyber Phoenix for much longer. That I do know. You will need to get somewhere safe – the Sangenma are in danger as long as you are within their reach.**

Samejima tensed, his free hand tightening. So far as he'd known, almost no one except a trusted few knew that he guarded the Sangenma. Only he knew the few ways that could unlock the seals on the demons, and he'd sworn to his own teacher never to reveal those to anyone else save his own successor.

He'd thought at one time that Ryou might be that successor. Now he couldn't be entirely certain. But regardless, even Ryou didn't know about the three cards, so no one could have taken the information from him.

Figuring out where that knowledge had been stolen from would have to come later. For now, he knew that Cyber Ogre and Cyber Phoenix both were right – time to get out of there and find somewhere safe to hide.

To find someone who could help Ryou, because Samejima wasn't going to let his student be tormented and slaughtered if he could help it. Ryou might well be undead, but he'd done nothing to harm anyone that Samejima knew about. No one was going to harm him.

It might have been easier to keep that oath if Cyber Phoenix hadn't vanished from underneath him without any real warning.

* * *

_If he weren't a monstrosity, he might almost be attractive._ Theron's lip curled as he nudged the quasi-comatose vampire with one foot again. As he expected, the bloodsucker didn't move. He wouldn't, either, for several hours. The spell keeping him under wouldn't fade until the following sunset at the earliest.

His chief servant approached, falling down to his knees as he did. "My lord," the priest – or so he called himself – whined, "my talisman had no effect on the creature! Was he warded against it?"

"Of course," Theron reassured him, though the vampire wasn't warded against anything at all. The so-called priest's talisman was little more than junk, incapable of even warding off the common cold. "But I've managed to take him down. He will be useful for information once we've broken him." Theron cast his gaze back to the unconscious bloodsucker. "I suspect that won't take much effort."

Though in truth, he did hope that it would. It would amuse him even more than what he did with this false priest and he hadn't thought anything _could_ be more entertaining than that.

He nodded towards the rest of the archers in hiding. He hadn't lied to the bloodsucker. Sunsdown as it had been wouldn't exist by the time the sun rose again, no matter how much effort those here put into putting the flames out. Sunsdown as it had been hadn't existed for almost three months now.

And it wouldn't be another three months before the bloodsuckers were all gone, forever.

For now, though, he had just one bloodsucker to entertain himself with, and he started by removing the abomination's deck and deck holster and handing them over to his priest. "Keep those safe until I tell you otherwise."

"Of course, my lord!" The priest bobbed up and down as he backed off with the deck holder.

Theron dismissed him from thought a heartbeat later as he gestured for his archers to gather. He had orders to give, and plans to make. And three demon cards and their guardian to locate.

* * *

**To Be Continued**

**Notes:** There's nothing more fun than world-building! And plot-building.


	3. Chapter 3

**Series:** World of Fusion||**Title:** War of the Undead  
**Characters:** Samejima, OCs||**Ship:** N/A  
**Chapters:** 3-50||**Chapter Words:** 3,034||**Total Words:** 9,123  
**Genre:** Drama, Supernatural||**Rated:** PG  
**Challenges:** Diversity Writing, GX: Fused World, L2, 2000-6000 wpc; One Character Boot Camp, Marufuji Ryou, #19, rebel; Include The Word, #47, multipy; Chapter Set Boot Camp, #24, 50 chaptrs; Advent 2015-2016, GX, bonus #1: roll for fic length: between 100,000-200,000 words; Christmas Advent 2017, New Year's Special, start a new fic and update it once a week; Epic Masterclass, YGO GX, #4, AU Space  
**Notes:** Same universe as **Raised To His Word** but featuring other characters. A little backstory will appear as well.  
**Summary:** The first strike in war involves doing as much damage as you possibly can – such as taking one of your enemy's strongest warriors and using him to get the strongest weapons. Ryou never thought he'd enjoy being a vampire but this is a whole new level. Perhaps it's a good thing he has a teacher and some new friends to help him out.

* * *

Samejima wasn't ashamed to admit that he screamed as he tumbled downward. It wasn't a long fall; Cyber Phoenix remained close enough to the ground even as they attempted to depart the area around Sunsdown. But now he could feel the wind rushing past him and a part of him breathed in relief that they'd crossed into another wooded area at the speed Cyber Phoenix flew.

He crashed hard into the branches of a tree, slowing down as he scrabbled in a not entirely vain attempt to slow himself down. Thick and thin branches slapped against him and the leg that he'd already hurt once pulsed harder in pain as he finally thudded to a halt against a tree trunk. Breath knocked out of him, he leaned back against the trunk and shuddered, skinned hands gripping at whatever he could find.

Samejima had no idea of how long he stayed there. His heart slowly resumed a more reasonable pace as he dragged in breaths of soft forest air. Moment by moment he started to put together what happened.

Chased by zombies. Rescued by Ryou, who'd been a vampire. Ryou taking him to Sunsdown, which was under attack by something or someone. Ryou thought perhaps zombies but what Samejima saw was a lot of fire and people trying to put it out. Then Ryou tried to get him to leave, while whoever he'd fought at Sunsdown somehow captured him.

All the logic didn't quite click into place, but Samejima decided going back wasn't a good idea, at least not on his own, and definitely not under cover of darkness. He wanted to make certain Ryou wasn't dead – destroyed – he had no idea of what the proper terminology was. But he didn't have the strength to go back there himself and he couldn't have sent Cyber Ogre or one of the others in his deck.

Slowly he stared downward. He'd come to a halt halfway up the tree, which meant that getting to the ground wasn't going to be that easy of a process. He sighed.

_I don't have a choice._ He hoped Ryou would be bale to rescue himself, but he couldn't be certain, and he certainly couldn't help at the moment. What he needed to do was get on the ground and then figure out where he could get to food, water, and safety.

Shifting around so he could start working his way down took at least a quarter of an hour. He wrapped his arms as tightly as he could around the trunk, trying not to think of how much his leg hurt with every moment. He would also need to find someone who could help him there. Exactly where he'd find all of those escaped him. He knew so little about this area.

And if there were people who might possibly want the Sangenma, then it was his mission to make certain that they didn't get them.

_So I can't go back to the Cyber Dojo. I can't even let them know that the cards are __**at**__ the Cyber Dojo._

He was the only one who knew their location. So keeping that from changing would be one of his top priorities, right after his personal needs.

Breath by breath he worked his way down the tree, taking time whenever he needed to in order to catch his breath and let the pain in his leg ease off. By the time he actually set his feet on the ground, the eastern sky paled and the stars had begun to fade. Samejima stared back the way that they'd come, hoping that whoever captured Ryou at least knew that sunlight and vampires didn't mix and took care of him.

Then he resolutely turned his back on the town and stared to move away, taking each step slow and carefully. He could still see the faint streams of smoke rising, though not so much the flames anymore, from Sunsdown. Too far away to see how much of town fell to the devouring flames, though.

He cast another few glances behind himself, heart jerking when he saw a few shapes moving. From the way they lurched – Ryou had indeed been right about zombies being in the area. At least they weren't that close.

_I have time. Maybe._ Even after almost fifty years, he didn't know everything about every monster. What he knew about zombies was that he didn't want to know anything else, especially not up close and personal.

So he hurried as fast as he could, stumbling over every small hillock, until he snatched up a broken off branch to use as a makeshift cane. Another glance confirmed that the zombies lurched after him. Not a good way to start the day.

Every step took more and more energy out of him. The zombies weren't making noise and they didn't seem to be running. They wouldn't have to. Zombies didn't need to rest. He did. They could keep going until he stopped.

There were reasons why zombies were considered one the worst plagues of this modern world. Healers, physicians, and mages could and had developed vaccinations and cures that dealt neatly with almost every illness and disease known to exist. There really wasn't a remedy for being undead of any type.

Samejima broke out of the woods somewhere around mid-morning. His throat dried, he coughed every now and then – there was a pain in his side when he did and he feared he'd need a healer's touch for far more than his leg – and his stomach demanded food even more than it had before. But this wood didn't appear to have anything that the one on the other side of Sunsdown had, nothing but trees that bore no fruit, no bushes that had berries, no animals that he could've at least made an attempt to capture and kill.

So he kept on going. He didn't have much of a choice, really. It was either continue onward or wait for the zombies to tear him apart.

He did see something on the far side of the forest as he stumbled out of it. A strange wall, crafted out of some material that Samejima didn't recognize, with a set of gates that he could only catch a glimpse of that seemed made of deep toned black wood strengthened with bands of steel. Samejima hurried; whatever this was might be a good place to hide from the zombies. Perhaps there would even be someone who could destroy them!

He scrambled faster and almost fell down, the would-be cane cracking in half as he did, in front of the gates. Raising one fist, he banged as hard as he could, wincing as the sound only carried briefly before fading away. Had anyone even heard that at all?

Samejima banged even harder, the same thing happening as he did. He stared up at the gates, his heart sinking.

"Please, can I come in?" Samejima's voice cracked and broke. "There's a zombie horde coming this way. I don't know how big, but where they come from – someone there has captured my old student. I need help."

He raised one hand again, though the longer he did this, the more he became convinced that he wasn't going to get an answer.

The gates swung open and he fell forward, collapsing onto smooth cool grass, very unlike the sparse cover on the ground outside the gated area. Samejima stared downward before he pulled his head up and stared.

About thirty paces away from him there rose a glorious fountain, rising upward and then cascading downward, circling around a wide basin before it rose back up again. The fountain itself seemed built of shimmering crystal that refracted all the light that came in from above.

He blinked a few more times, then started to push himself up. It wasn't that easy and every part of him screamed in pain. Checking on the approach of the zombies got him scrambling upward even faster, no matter how much it hurt.

"You're hurt."

It was a soft voice that sounded damp, as if the speaker spoke through water. Samejima lifted his head, trying to find whoever it was.

"Let me close the doors. Then I'll take care of you."

He still couldn't tell who it was, but the gates closed, a long bar of steel falling across them from the back. He stared harder, tried to take a step, and only failed to fall because strange, cool, damp arms appeared to catch him.

When he got a chance to take a better look, he shook his head and looked again.

_It was easier to believe in Ryou as a vampire._

The woman who stood there – if woman it was, though she at least roughly bore the shape of one – had skin of light emerald, with long hair of dark jade, and eyes much the same that almost blended with her skin. A gem of the same color rested in the center of her forehead and her ears were webbed and wider than human ears. In the crook of one arm she carried a pot of some kind.

She smiled at him. "Come this way," she told him, carefully guiding him over to a low bench that he hadn't seen before. Samejima didn't have many options at the moment so he moved along with her. His throat craved for a single taste of the water and he hoped that she would share.

"You may call me Izumi," she said. "I am the Fairy of the Fountain." She gestured with her free hand to the fountain as she settled him onto the bench. "And that is the fountain."

"Samejima," he murmured, trying to catch his breath. "There are zombies. Can they get in here?"

"Of course not. The wards are very strong here and if need be, then my sister can summon her friends to deal with them."

The longer Samejima sat there, the longer he didn't think that he could handle this. His eyes started to close and no matter how much Izumi talked, the words faded away, until the world itself vanished.

* * *

Izumi blinked as the strange human collapsed on the bench. He still breathed, but it seemed as if he wasn't in the best condition. She lifted her pot and caressed her fingers around the edge of it, whispering the ancient words of power before she tilted it out over him. Water, shimmering and flawlessly clean, purer than any other water in all the world, cascaded over him, soaking into his clothes and skin.

She could see his wounds healing even as the water splashed over him, and his breathing eased. He didn't move at all save for his gentle, easier breathing.

"What's going on?" Her sister settled next to her, poking at the stranger with one of her long fingers. "Who's this?"

"I barely got his name. But he said something about zombies." Izumi shrugged; undead of no kind could cross the barriers of the fountain's sanctuary. It had always been that way and so far as Izumi knew, it would always be.

Her sister frowned before she leaped up to the top of the nearest and tallest tree. From the outside, the trees couldn't be seen. All that could be seen were the sanctuary walls and to those who could sense magic, the awareness of powerful warding. The gates could only be opened by one of the sisters, and neither would do so save at great need.

Izumi kept an eye on the sleeping stranger – Samejima, she reminded herself. She'd seen very few humans since matters settled down. Several of those who found their way here during the Unsettled Years ended up being food for Sienna's friends. She'd seldom actually talked to one.

Sienna dropped back down next to her. "Zombies," she agreed. "They should go right by us, then. They're not that bright, you know."

Oh, Izumi knew that very well. Zombies had so little brainpower that it was almost sad, especially if you knew them before they became mindless eaters of flesh. At least one could hold a relatively intelligent conversation with vampires.

"What else did he say?" Sienna wanted to know, winding strands of her dark pink hair around one finger. One of her small friends nudged against her, purring softly as they did. Sienna rubbed between their ears as she waited for the answer.

Izumi passed on what she'd been told – the warning about the zombies and mentioning of a student who'd been captured at Sunsdown. Sienna tapped the fingers of her free hand on the bench.

"We'll have to send someone to check there. But it can wait until he wakes up. He might have more information for us then." Sienna's little friend sniffed at Samejima for a few seconds before licking at the old man's fingers and nibbling them. "Stop that," Sienna mildly corrected the tiny dragon. The dragon only sniffed and nudged at something.

Izumi took a better look at it. "Oh! He's a duelist!" That wasn't such a rare event. Most humans who wandered around were either skilled warriors, mages, or duelists – sometimes a combination of two of the three.

"Let's see if anyone wants to talk," Sienna said, resting her hand on the deck holder. "Who's in there?"

Everything was quiet for a few moments, until Izumi wondered if he somehow had a dead deck. Those were rare, usually from those humans who belonged to one of the factions that longed to separate the worlds into twelve dimensions again. Izumi wasn't fond of them, mostly because they spent a lot of their time ranting about how _all_ spirits and monsters and everyone who wasn't human was a minion of evil and deserved to either be enslaved or killed.

Izumi got tired of hearing that very quickly. Drowning people wasn't exactly what the waters of the Fountain had been meant to be used for, but she'd done it before and she'd do it again. It had always been her task to defend the Fountain against any who would defile it and people like that would definitely try to defile it.

But then a tall figure rose out of the deck and stared at the two of them. Sienna nodded her head.

"And who are you?" She asked.

**Cyber Ogre. Are you assisting my duelist?** There was a definite hint of wariness around the words. Sienna and Izumi both nodded.

"He came here and asked for help. He spoke of zombies and a student of his taken captive. What else can you tell us?"

Cyber Ogre observed them both, arms crossed over the silver chest, before he began to speak.

**I do not have all of the information, but from what I've heard and seen, there are those who seek to claim what my duelist guards – the Sangenma, the three Mythic Demons that come close to rivaling the God Cards for power. Who these people are and why they want that, I don't know. But they must not succeed in their ambitions.**

Neither Sienna nor Izumi would argue with that. They'd heard about both sets of powerful cads and the spirits attached to it, both gods and demons. No one wanted power like that in the hands of those who would use it for harm.

"Would whoever wants these cards use his student to get them somehow?" Izumi wondered. She'd read of that sort of thing before, using a hostage.

**His student does not know the location. But I would not rule out that they attempt to force my duelist to surrender the cards' location by threatening harm to him. There is little that can harm him, if he shares the resistances of his kind, but it is not impossible.**

Sienna drummed her fingers. "What do you mean, his kind?"

**His student was born human, but through circumstances we don't know in detail, is now a vampire. If those who have him intend to keep him safe, for whatever their reasons, then he must be kept away from the sunlight and provided with blood.**

Both of them shuddered. In all of her life, Izumi hadn't ever seen a vampire, and she'd never really wanted to. They might be better to talk to than zombies, but they still fed from the living, and she counted herself among the living.

But Cyber Ogre hadn't finished. **My duelist – Samejima – and his student – Hell Kaiser Ryou – intended to stop and rest at Sunsdown when they saw that it burned. Ryou insisted that Samejima remain on Cyber Phoenix, out of sight and out of reach, and went down to deal with the situation himself. We could not see much, but we did see him captured and unconscious. Cyber Phoenix couldn't maintain a presence after that, but did their best to get Samejima to safety.**

"So there are zombies in Sunsdown," Sienna murmured. As the closest location to the Fountain, she'd been there before. Izumi never left; Sienna could blend in with humans more easily than Izumi could. All she really needed to do was disguise her ears and put on ordinary human clothes to cover her scaled gown of choice and no one could tell her apart from a descendant of the old days.

"And maybe worse," Izumi pointed out. "A necromancer could be there too. Whoever set the place on fire and captured the vampire – a normal zombie couldn't do that. It's either a higher ranking one or a necromancer. Or both."

Sienna nodded, hand resting again on her tiny dragon's head. The little creature purred and nuzzled happily against her touch, as all of those dragons that she could summon did. There'd never been a dragon that she'd called that didn't adore her.

"I'll send my friend here to reconnoiter the area and if I have to, call some of the others." Her hand slid down to the jar she kept at her side, the mirror twin of Izumi's on the outside. "If the place is devoted to zombies, we'll have to end it completely."

That didn't make Izumi any happier, but there were things that needed to be done, and water was, after all, the greatest cleanser of all evil.

* * *

**To Be Continued**

**Notes:** Eventually I'm going to specify the year this would be. There's a fun thing I figured out while plotting. Didn't even do it on purpose but it turned out that way. It'll come up eventually. Next chapter, Ryou again!


	4. Chapter 4

**Series:** World of Fusion||**Title:** War of the Undead  
**Characters:** Samejima, Ryou, OCs||**Ship:** N/A  
**Chapters:** 4-50||**Chapter Words:** 3,153||**Total Words:** 12,276  
**Genre:** Drama, Supernatural||**Rated:** PG  
**Challenges:** Diversity Writing, GX: Fused World, L2, 2000-6000 wpc; One Character Boot Camp, Marufuji Ryou, #19, rebel; Include The Word, #47, multipy; Chapter Set Boot Camp, #24, 50 chaptrs; Advent 2015-2016, GX, bonus #1: roll for fic length: between 100,000-200,000 words; Christmas Advent 2017, New Year's Special, start a new fic and update it once a week; Epic Masterclass, YGO GX, #4, AU Space  
**Notes:** Same universe as **Raised To His Word** but featuring other characters. A little backstory will appear as well.  
**Summary:** The first strike in war involves doing as much damage as you possibly can – such as taking one of your enemy's strongest warriors and using him to get the strongest weapons. Ryou never thought he'd enjoy being a vampire but this is a whole new level. Perhaps it's a good thing he has a teacher and some new friends to help him out.

* * *

Theron arranged matters with all due speed. No matter how hard the humans tried, Sunsdown was a lost cause, and he watched with unmitigated satisfaction as the last of the homes burned to the ground. He contributed to the cause as he had from the beginning of that night: setting any stray buildings on fire with his flaming arrows and making certain that none of them survived the night.

His false priest contributed as well, scurrying around the burning buildings, encouraging people to throw unneeded possessions onto the flames, and distracting everyone from seeing the unconscious vampire Theron kept near him. Theron didn't trust anyone else to be able to keep the bloodsucker from escaping. He would keep this one to himself.

Not to mention he rather anticipated all the pain that he could inflict on the creature once the sun rose. Not just burns but the deprivation of blood, finding out exactly how much pain that bloodsuckers could take, and what might be involved in seeing to it that the creature came to obey his every command.

_I do hope My Lord will allow me to keep this one._ He'd done quite a bit in securing the first part of his lord's rise to power in this new world. Surely he would be rewarded for this.

Even more so if he could bring the Sangenma to his Lordship. That would almost require that he be rewarded, and Theron had in mind what he wanted.

As the hours ticked by, the villagers came to assemble by the river, all of them staring at the ruins of their home. Before any of them spied anything they shouldn't, Theron made certain to vacate the area, dragging his netted captive with him.

"See to it that they remain hungry and cold until I return," Theron ordered his priest. "And see that you assure them this is all the fault of the vampires. Let none of them forget that."

His priest bowed down to him at once. "As you command."

Theron headed for the mountains, considering what other tasks he needed to take care of. Those who survived of his other servants lurched away into the distance already, seeking out the guardian of the Sangenma. There were trees not that far away and those would likely break the old man's fall.

_If they don't break his neck,_ Theron mused, a hint of a smile playing around his lips. _Wouldn't that be interesting._

But he couldn't plan for such an easy solution to his problems. The old man would find a way to survive. He'd not have the Sangenma in his care if he were the type to give up easily. So Theron would have to trap him and convince him – painfully – to hand over those demonic cards.

His gaze flickered to the still unconscious vampire. It wasn't sunrise just yet but the eastern sky grew paler and paler with each passing moment. He would have to reach his hiding place soon. He wanted to torment his captive, not outright destroy him, not now.

Destroying him could come in about forty or fifty years, when he'd finally exhausted all of his options for torment. Maybe.

Just as the first rays of the sun peeked over the horizon, Theron shoved the netted vampire into the cave he'd chosen as a good place to stay out of sight of the villagers and random travelers alike. Few people investigated caves in this mountain range, and he quickly set up a few wards to make certain that he would know if anyone came within range.

He'd stayed here before and it showed. Instead of a dry, bare cave, he'd worked this into something just shy of a castle. After all, he told himself, his lord might come visiting at any time, and his lord should stay in the comfort to which he was accustomed.

Theron tugged his captive all the way to the deepest part of the deepest cave, where the sun's light would never touch. A proper castle had a dungeon, after all, and though he'd never thought to have a prisoner there, now that he did, he found himself quite pleased to have a place to store him.

But now he regarded the bloodsucker thoughtfully. The net would fade away at moon-rise that night. The magic would last not longer than that. Which meant he needed a way to keep the soulless creature from escaping.

_Can vampires become mist?_ He'd never done that much research into what their capabilities were, beyond the standard of their great strength, speed, and agility. He would have to make certain he learned that. So he made a notation to himself: acquire a method to force the vampire to speak the truth to him.

Until then, he would assume that the creature could do whatever human or spirit legends said about them and act accordingly. The creature would need blood – disgusting, but Theron refused to have it going feral just yet.

_It will also be useful in training it,_ he mused. For the creature would learn that it would gain blood only when obedient.

Chains would also help – the sort of chains that could neutralize every sort of ability that the abomination wielded, whether he knew of them or not. That would mean he had traveling and bargaining to do. On the other side of the mountains there lived a sorcerer who specialized in negating the magic of others. He would be quite useful.

But he would also need a guard, just in case the creature awoke out of time. Someone that could not be shredded by the foul creature, should it somehow slip its bonds. Someone who could keep the thing restrained no matter what.

_I have just the person._ Theron smiled. This would be a costly venture, but one well worth the price.

As if there could be a cost too high to pay for eliminating the bloodsuckers once and for all.

* * *

"What have we heard from our field agents?" He asked as he stared out the window at the rising sun. He was no bloodsucker, to shun the daylight hours, but his eyes preferred the dark by far.

"Not as much as I would like," his second replied at once, resting one hand on the scattering of reports, some written on paper, some crystals enchanted to carry voices, others that would provide visual images, and still others that he didn't care to think of too closely. He'd dedicated his life to his cause and yet he still had standards. Something not all of their field agents did.

His lord glanced toward him. "In detail, Katashi. In detail."

Katashi bent his head without hesitation, reaching for the nearest report. "Most of them are the same. The ones that are surviving, at least."

"The ones that don't have any bloodsuckers to deal with in their areas."

"Yes, my lord." Katashi touched one of the crystals. "But this one in particular is a trifle different."

That got a bit of a glance back from his master. Katashi hurried to explain. "It just arrived last night so matters might've changed by now. But it seems that Theron – you remember him, he was assigned to raze and raise the southwestern territory, the one Camula's spawn claims?"

This time his lord acknowledged him with a tilt of his head forward. Katashi continued.

"He's located the Guardian of the Sangenma and has ordered his troops to bring him in – dead or alive."

Katashi's Lord whirled to face him. "He found the _Guardian_?"

"So he claimed. Of course, this is Theron. I'd not put it past him to find someone he thinks is the Guardian and either fail to capture them or be utterly mistaken. It would hardly be his first failure, my lord."

Soft wings whirred in the air as the Lord fidgeted. "You're quite right. But we should investigate this, for the sake of certainty. If he does have the Guardian, or even just found him, then the Sangenma are exactly what we can use to defeat the bloodsuckers once and for all."

Katashi considered that for a few moments before he nodded. "Of course, my lord. Is there someone you'd like to send or should I pick someone?"

There wasn't a reply for several long moments as his Lord contemplated the answer.

"Do you recall that human warrior that we hired not that long ago?" A twitch of black wings as the Lord ducked away from the window and took a seat on his favorite chair, far from the sun. "I misremember the name we were given."

Katashi tilted his head forward. "I know of whom you speak, my lord."

"Then send him. Her. Whatever it is." His lord shrugged. "I want to have a report as soon as possible. And preferably the Sangenma and the Guardian as well." Claws scratched onto the chair. "If they can also bring me Camula's spawn, even better. She's so seldom made spawn and I want to see this one for myself before I set it out in the sun."

"As you wish." Katashi picked up the crystal and wiped it clean with a tap of his fingers. "I'll inform Theron we're sending someone to check on the situation and then notify the warrior."

* * *

Ryou wanted to wake up. He wasn't certain if he were even asleep, all truth told, but he knew that he couldn't see or hear or smell anything, and he could only faintly feel the net that still bound him and the earth underneath him.

So he focused on that, when he had nothing else. Not just earth – stone. Somewhat damp stone at that. He couldn't be certain of anything else, but he knew damp stone when it touched him.

No sight, no hearing, no scent. Almost all of his senses robbed from him. That had to be because of the net, or because of whatever foul magic that creature used against him.

He remembered the fight. He wasn't sure of how much of a fight it could be called, but he remembered. Now that he could look back on it, he wondered if he'd actually been gulled. Led on a wild goose chase until the archer could lure him into position to bring him down.

The more he thought on it, the more he thought that held a kernel of truth. The archer debated killing him or not; so far as Ryou could tell, he hadn't even known for certain that Ryou would be there. Perhaps he'd only made plans instead of a trap? But once Ryou turned up, those plans became the trap.

However it had been, the practical point remained that Ryou remained only a quarter conscious, in possession of one sense that he could be certain of, and held somewhere that he didn't know about. He strained with all of his energy to touch his mind to his deck, only for nothing to happen.

_He took my deck._ Ryou wasn't sure if he managed not to snarl or if he just weren't capable of it right now. But his deck wasn't there and it was more than likely the archer's fault. If he'd been able to sink his fangs into the man's neck, then he most definitely would have.

That led to another thought – the zombies. He _knew_ they were there somewhere in Sunsdown. He'd scented them very clearly, but in all of his attempts to save the town and save himself, he'd not seen a single hint of them beyond that. The archer could be in league with them, or even commanding them. Just because he hadn't seen them didn't mean that they weren't there. Only that they somehow hid themselves very well.

Ryou laid out the points of what he would have to do. Once the spell that bound him broke – and once the net that kept him restrained broke – he would be able to escape. Whatever guards the archer had on him wouldn't be able to stand against a vampire on his home ground.

Once free again, he would send a message to Camula and Ruthven. They would need to know that the zombie troops in the area wanted the Sangenma, and that Samejima was in danger because of this. They would not care very much about Samejima himself. Camula cared little about humans at all; she'd turned him because he'd caught her fancy to a degree. Ryou chose not to explore that very deeply.

But she would know how dangerous the Sangenma were and that they needed to be protected from whatever the zombies wanted. Ryou would be assigned to that; he didn't doubt it for a moment. Samejima had been his teacher, in his mortal days, and Samejima trusted him.

Mostly. He'd never told Ryou about the Sangenma, after all. Camula and Ruthven told him of that, when he'd been given this area as his to guard and protect.

_I didn't do a very good job of that._ He hated the thought of failure. He would have to do something to stop the zombie hordes here. That remained one of his highest priorities.

When it came to that, he would also have to send a message back to his own manor. Shou would definitely need to know what was going on and how to protect the place from zombies. He'd insisted that Ryou didn't need to go out to hunt, that they had suppliers there…

_But I wanted something fresh. Something I haven't tasted before._

The suppliers were very well kept and well fed and he could've easily fed from three or four of them in a night and been satisfied. Camula and Ruthven both taught him that killing his prey wasn't necessary. Sometimes it happened, but it wasn't necessary.

He would gladly have killed that archer. His thoughts turned that way again. He didn't have a name for the archer. He would have to find that out at his earliest convenience.

Ryou attempted to move and found that he couldn't. It had to be the net that kept him so completely bound. The net and the anti-magic woven into it. This wouldn't have happened if he were human.

Though if he were human, he'd likely not have been in the area to encounter the zombies to start with. He wasn't truly given to idle speculation, not when he had plans that needed to be made.

Escape his captivity. Find the zombies in Sunsdown. Shred them. Clean himself up. Alert Ruthven and Camula, alert Shou, find wherever Samejima ended up.

That one he didn't want to think about too much, because of how close it hung to failure. He couldn't be certain of how far Cyber Phoenix managed to fly before he hadn't been able to support it. Samejima could've made it to safety or fallen from too high above and broken every bone in his body – or worse.

If he'd fallen, then it remained highly plausible that the zombies either found him or would find him. The closest settlement would still not be reached for several minutes by flight or an hour or so by walking or riding, depending on the speed of one's mount. Zombies would make the trip in somewhat half the time, since they had no need to rest or eat.

Endurance predators, Ryou remembered being told in his classes. Much like ordinary humans had been once upon a time, but more intense. Humans could eat on the move, if they could find food to eat, but they still needed to rest and find water. Zombies ate because they chose to, not because they needed nourishment. They needed neither rest nor water.

Zombies could and did continue without effort and without stopping. An injured human, who might or might not be able to call spirits to defend himself, would be easy prey for them.

Ryou determined that no matter what, he was going to find a way to save Samejima and continue the guardianship of the Sangenma. It wasn't something that he particularly wanted to do himself – the power didn't interest him, but he had enough responsibilities already. But he suspected he knew a few people who might be able to accomplish the task reasonably well.

For now he needed to rest and be ready to act when he could. He had no way to know where he was and he couldn't plan anything else without knowing that.

* * *

Samejima stirred briefly, blinking the sleep out of his eyes. His first thought was that he'd never seen the sky so very blue as it was now. The second thought followed the sudden rush of memories as he jerked himself upward and looked around.

It hadn't been a dream. He sat on a marble bench in a garden of unparalleled beauty, surrounded by a high wall set with a thick gate. Now that he didn't have pain distracting him, he could feel the presence of the wards that protected this place. From outside, he'd seen only the wall and the gate. There hadn't been a hint of anything else in here.

**You are safe here.**

He turned his head again, this time to see Cyber Ogre standing beside him. A soft breath of air swished from his lips. Seeing his partner allowed him to relax more.

"Where is this?" Samejima murmured. "Were there people here?" He hoped that he hadn't dreamed that part of what he so vaguely recalled.

"You're awake!" A cheerful voice, one reminiscent of water splashing, spoke. Cyber Ogre gestured and Samejima turned to see a woman of green – all of her was green – walking towards him. She held a jar in one hand that she sat down before coming over towards him. "Good morning. Welcome to the Fountain. Do you remember me?"

Samejima shook his head, though he thought he did recall having seen her. He just didn't remember anything else about her.

"I'm Izumi. You practically fell through the gates this morning and told us about a zombie horde. Don't worry about it; zombies can't see through our wards. As long as you stay in here, you're going to be safe."

Samejima breathed in a silent breath of relief before he squared himself. "But I can't stay here. My student Ryou – he's in danger. And that's only the beginning."

Izumi bent her head forward. "I know. You told us. But my sister has sent her companion to search for him and once we know more, then we can set matters right. For now, you need to rest." She tapped her lips with a finger. "You humans need to eat food, don't you?"

"Yes. Yes, we do," Samejima agreed. He did not want to leave Ryou wherever he was. But he couldn't deny that Izumi was right. Until they had more information, there wasn't much that they could do. He hoped with all of his heart that Ryou could survive until then.

* * *

**To Be Continued**

**Notes:** I am gleeing at all the building I'm doing. All of this will soon come together.


	5. Chapter 5

**Series:** World of Fusion||**Title:** War of the Undead  
**Characters:** Ocs, O'Brien||**Ship:** N/A  
**Chapters:** 5-50||**Chapter Words:** 3,056||**Total Words:** 15,332  
**Genre:** Drama, Supernatural||**Rated:** PG  
**Challenges:** Diversity Writing, GX: Fused World, L2, 2000-6000 wpc; One Character Boot Camp, Marufuji Ryou, #19, rebel; Include The Word, #47, multipy; Chapter Set Boot Camp, #24, 50 chaptrs; Advent 2015-2016, GX, bonus #1: roll for fic length: between 100,000-200,000 words; Christmas Advent 2017, New Year's Special, start a new fic and update it once a week; Epic Masterclass, YGO GX, #4, AU Space  
**Notes:** Same universe as **Raised To His Word** but featuring other characters. A little backstory will appear as well. Also, the character notes up top here will change depending on who is involved in each chapter.  
**Summary:** The first strike in war involves doing as much damage as you possibly can – such as taking one of your enemy's strongest warriors and using him to get the strongest weapons. Ryou never thought he'd enjoy being a vampire but this is a whole new level. Perhaps it's a good thing he has a teacher and some new friends to help him out.

* * *

The tiny dragon whiffed through the clear morning air, keeping herself as hidden as possible. Right now that wasn't very difficult. Staying high in the air managed it very well.

_Are they going to be watching/_ Fairy Dragon wondered as she ducked through a cloud, slurping up a little water as she did. It wasn't as delicious as what came from Sienna's jar, but that was water from the Fountain and absolutely nothing was that delicious.

Fairy Dragon didn't need to rest but she searched for a place to perch the closer she grew to the village regardless. She wanted to make certain that she wasn't going to be seen while she accomplished her mission. A pile of rocks provided a good place and she curled up inside of a tiny hole.

Peering out of the hole told her that there wasn't much left of that village. Fairy Dragon breathed in and had to fight not to cough. There was such a strong reek of zombies that she wouldn't have believed for a moment there weren't some around here somewhere, whether she could see them or not.

But that wasn't all that she could see or smell. There was a faint hint of vampire, but that so faint she would've easily believed that the vampire had just passed through. She ruffled her wings and sniffed more deeply, trying to figure out what had happened.

Plenty of evidence of a fire. In fact, there weren't any places left standing at all. Ruined buildings and a group of people curled up by the river, which at least looked mostly clean. Fairy Dragon perked up her ears and leaned in, listening with every scrap of her being.

Like any dragon, there wasn't a single language that Fairy Dragon couldn't speak or understand. That made dragons very effective spies. Fairy Dragon heard the villagers murmuring to one another, mostly concerned where their next meal would come from and what else they could do.

"Where did the vampire go? He was trying to help us," one of the villagers said, voice loud and clear. Fairy Dragon paid strict attention to that one. Most of the villagers looked well-built but this one looked more so than the others. He wasn't dressed in the local styles either, and his scales – skin, she reminded herself – that was darker than theirs.

"Don't you believe that! Vampires are nothing but monsters, creatures that should not exist in this or any other world!" Someone countered at once, raising a hand to point at the skies above. "The holy sun protects us from such evil!"

A frisson of words raced through the gathering, with the first one who'd spoken moving forward. "Could you stop with all of that? We don't need preaching about being protected from threats that don't exist. We need to get to cleaning up and rebuilding. And finding allies where we can." The speaker folded his arms over his chest. "And finding out how that fire got started."

"It was the vampire! Who else could it have been?" The second speaker declared, brandishing whatever strange thing he held in his hand. Fairy Dragon couldn't get a good look at whatever it was. If he were the preaching type – he definitely seemed to be – then it was probably some sort of symbol.

The first speaker snorted. "Why would someone start the fire and then tell us to put it out? We need to _work_, not just sit here." He cast a glance from one side to the other. "We need to make sure everyone's safe. I think we're missing a few people too."

Again the preacher waved his sigil fiercely, as if that would make what he said somehow more convincing. "You can't trust those bloodsuckers! That's why people are missing. He took them to feed on!"

Soft whispers started, these a bit more in support of the ranting preacher.

"Vampires would do something like that."

"Who was that one? Was he even the one that is supposed to be here?"

"I don't think so. I saw him; he was very young. The last one I saw around here looked a lot older."

"I didn't think vampires aged that much."

Fairy Dragon flexed her claws and flitted away, making sure to stay as far from them as possible. She'd at least learned this – that there were zombies and a vampire. Exactly where they all were she didn't know, but she decided that finding out would be the next courage of action.

Tracing the vampire trail turned out to be all but impossible. Something overwhelmed the scent – at least part of the zombie stench squashed it out, and some form of human scent as well. Fairy Dragon cast back and forth for several hours before finally giving it up as a bad job. Wherever the vampire was, he wasn't where Fairy Dragon could find him right now.

By now Fairy Dragon's stomach rumbled and a far more pressing need presented itself – the fact that she hadn't eaten as of yet and she needed to do so desperately.

Settling down on a pile of rocks next to the river, Fairy Dragon flexed her claws and considered. Normally Sienna took care of her needs, but there were plenty of times when she hunted for herself as well. Sometimes Sienna brought her out to hunt for their mutual dinner. Enough times so Fairy Dragon knew how to do it.

She stared at the river, watching until she could assure herself that fish could be caught there. Giant ones, in fact, swept along in the current, too swift for most people to have caught them there. She thought that the river smoothed out farther along, offering a large lake where fishing could be done. The village sent people there to get food most likely – or had. Whether they still would remained to be seen.

But she didn't need to wait for the river to smooth out before she found what she was looking for. Fairy Dragon leaped right up into the air and dove down towards the river, claws skimming the surface until they dug into a fat fish and yanked it out to flop on the riverside.

Another slice of her claws tore the fish open and Fairy Dragon feasted until there wasn't much more left of the fish than a few scales and a wet spot. Fairy Dragon snatched another fish as quickly as she could, tearing into it as fast as she had the first one, and pondered a third.

Before she leaped for it, she heard footsteps coming towards her. She didn't have time enough to jump out of the way before one of the humans came into view. Fairy Dragon stiffened; she'd never been that close to humans. This one stopped as soon as it saw her – he saw her. This one was male.

This one was the one that she'd seen in the village, the one who wasn't the preacher waving the sigil. Fairy Dragon watched him, claws scraping on the rocks, wondering how fast he could move and what his intentions were.

"Hi there," he murmured, moving over towards the water. "How's the fishing, little one?"

Fairy Dragon wasn't certain if he thought she could understand him or not. She said nothing, waiting and watching as he knelt down by the river and washed his face. A gust of wind told her that something wasn't right –he scented of blood and bruises, and he hadn't before.

He washed himself off, removing his garments that were much more tattered than she remembered seeing them before. HE settled himself by the water, staring into it for several long and silent moments, before he darted a hand in the swift-flowing water and pulled it back – empty.

A second attempt yielded the same result. Fairy Dragon watched him, eyes flicking up and down. He looked as if he'd make a fine soldier, being tall and quite well muscled. She crept a touch nearer and sniffed. Before she quite thought it all the way through, she spoke.

"Who hurt you?"

The stranger glanced down at her, eyes widening a fraction before he turned back to the river. "It doesn't matter."

She didn't believe that. She stared at him for another few moments before she dove into the river herself and dragged out a couple of fish as fast as she could, dropping them to flop on the riverside next to him. He stared, blinking, before he reached to his waist, hand closing on an empty sheath of some kind.

Her claws scraped on the stones as she settled herself back there. "I saw you in the village – what was left of it." Fairy Dragon carefully cleaned her claws, not taking her attention off of him. "They threw you out, didn't they?"

His lips pressed together as he searched among the stones cast up by the river's current. He said nothing else, but Fairy Dragon could guess what happened regardless.

"Do you have a place to go?" Fairy Dragon didn't often make decisions like this, but she thought he might be able to tell Sienna and Izumi and the other human whatever it was that they needed to know about what was going on in what had been the village.

"Thank you for the fish," he said. "Do I pay for it by answering your questions?" She thought he was trying to make a joke. It didn't sound funny to her.

"IF you want to. But you don't have to." Fairy Dragon cleaned off one claw until it gleamed. "But I do have questions. So – could you tell me your name?"

He stared down at her, a sharp-edged rock in one hand. "Austin O'Brien," he said at last. "But you can call me O'Brien."

* * *

Theron tapped on the door, doing all within his power to maintain a regal and composed expression. It wasn't easy when he wanted to cackle with glee and caper about with how happy he was. But he kept himself under control.

In the center of the door there gleamed a sphere as large as two fists set together, flawlessly clear. It glowed a deep blue as he knocked, and a voice spoke.

"Who approaches?"

Theron coughed politely. "Theron, servant of Zombie Master. I have a request of you."

"Speak."

Theron knew this wasn't the one who he needed to speak to. But this would at least pass the message onward.

"I have a prisoner who needs a guard while I deal with certain missions for my mater." Close enough to the truth, if not all the way. "This prisoner is a vampire and is currently under an enchantment to remain asleep until moon-rise. But I don't fully trust it to remain asleep and I need a guard who cannot fall in battle or to a vampire's wiles."

This was why he'd come here. There were plenty of items and spells that enabled one to be protected against defeat in combat by either spells or physical attacks. This place sold both warriors skilled in the use of such items and the items themselves.

He raised up a small bag. "I'm quite prepared to pay the price." A shake of the bag caused the gold coins within to clink.

Theron recalled having heard that in some of the worlds, back before the Great Fusion, people used colored papers as money. That didn't seem very wise to him, when items of real value could be used so much easier. At least now they were wiser about such things.

The glowing crystal remained the same for a few breaths, before fading to pure white. The door swung open, revealing a corridor that led to a small flight of stairs.

"Your purchase awaits you in chamber seven. Please leave your payment in the bowl outside."

Theron tilted his head in agreement and started forward. The enchanted corridor led him right to room seven, without any deviations along the way. He set the bag of coins in the bowl on the niche outside, and the moment that he did, the door swung open to reveal a small room.

Inside the room there was – nothing. An empty room, save for a small bed and a few personal items. Theron only smiled.

"Are you ready to go?"

From the deepest shadows came the answer. "You have bought my services for the span of seven days and seven nights. No more, no less. I will guard your prisoner and no more. The prisoner will not escape while under my watch. If you require other services of me, then you must pay more."

Of course. Theron expected no less. He bent his head in an agreeing nod. "As you say."

He turned and headed back out. He couldn't see the warrior, but it didn't matter. There would be few indeed who could see one whose only name was the task that he did so very well: assassin.

Or more properly, Assassin.

* * *

O'Brien hacked at one of the fish, trying to wrap his head around everything that happened over the last night or so. He could manage the thoughts of Sunsdown burning down. Such a thing wasn't impossible. Unlikely, but possible.

All the rest of it – that priest who screeched about how vampire set the fire, who'd also gone to such lengths to clean the town out of magic users of every kind. The fact there'd been a vampire there to start with and the rumors he'd heard about zombies – the fact that he'd _seen_ a zombie not that long ago. It passed on through just the day before, before the fire got started.

None of this made sense.

_I have to find that vampire._ He'd barely seen the creature except from a distance but he seemed reasonably calm and intelligent.

With a little effort he had the fish gutted and the scales stripped off, then got a fire going. He kept all of his focus on the small things, not letting himself think too much about the way his bruises and cuts ached. He also kept an eye on he small dragon that kept on watching him as he worked.

"What are you doing around here?" He finally asked. The dragon hadn't said anything since asking his name. "And what is your name?"

"You can call me Fairy Dragon." The dragon licked their lips. "And I'm – just here."

O'Brien wasn't as experienced as his father was as a soldier, but he recognized not being told the entire truth regardless. For now, he nodded. If the creature wanted to keep things to herself, then he wasn't quite in the mood to go digging for it.

Fairy Dragon studied him for several long minutes once he dug the fish out of the coals and started to peel off pieces. It wasn't as well seasoned as he would have preferred, but it was at least food and more so than the people in the ruined village had.

He cast a glance back that way, wondering what would become of them. The priest seemed determined that they stay where they were, at least for now, when O'Brien's recommendation would've been to find what they could save from the rubble and move somewhere less flammable. The mountains had caves in them and there were several systems that would have plentiful food and water.

It wouldn't at all be the first time that humans lived in caves. He'd grown up in a place like that, with his parents telling him stories they'd learned from their parents about the world that had been before. That wasn't a world O'Brien had ever seen or remembered, but he held no attachments to it. He did remember the stores, though; his father had a way of weaving them that made each tale live all around them.

_I should go visit them,_ he thought as he finished up his fish. The problem with that was that it would take months to travel to them. He could do it; he had no other commitments at the moment. At least not beyond what happened at Sunsdown.

He should visit his parents. But he wasn't going to leave, at least not very far. Ever since the priest started harrying the magic users out of town, he'd suspected something was up and the fire didn't make matters any better.

Fairy Dragon nudged at him. "You should come – I know a place you can go," she said, staring up at him. "You'll need a place to stay, won't you?"

O'Brien couldn't deny that. HE knew a place or two in the area where he could rest while he made up his mind on what to do but he would need proper food and more supplies than he had on him – assuming that the people of the village didn't get whipped up into some kind of frenzy to start hunting him. Or vampires.

From what he recalled the priest saying, they were probably going to do that anyway. He'd raved over and over again about the evils of vampires and magic and spirits and how no true human settlement should put up with them, how the true humans should band together to form an empire as they had in the old days and reassert their status as the dominant life-form.

O'Brien thought that was a load of nonsense. His parents taught him that while matters were far different than they'd been in their grandparents' day, in this new world all needed to work together, none dominant over the others by virtue of their species. Perhaps not everyone believed that, but O'Brien saw no reason for humans to lord over everyone else.

It didn't seem all that relevant at the moment anyway, not when they had vampires and zombies and mysteriously burning villages to content with.

"Where?" He licked his fingers, wishing he had more. Fishing had been his only idea on where to get fast food before he moved onward.

"The Fountain. It's…" Fairy Dragon twitched a little, tail swishing. "It's special. It's safe."

He'd heard rumors, stories, most of them involving wicked sorceresses who waited in fountains to lure innocent strangers into their clutches and do unspeakable things to them. The longer he thought on the matter, the more he wanted to give it a test.

"All right. Show me the way."

* * *

**To Be Continued**

**Notes:** I didn't expect O'Brien to show up. But there he is. Don't worry about Ryou too much, though. Only Haou is allowed to truly break him and that won't be happening in this story. Though I say nothing about hurting him…


	6. Chapter 6

**Series:** World of Fusion||**Title:** War of the Undead  
**Characters:** Ryou, Noble D'Noir||**Ship:** N/A  
**Chapters:** 6-50||**Chapter Words:** 3,027||**Total Words:** 18,359  
**Genre:** Drama, Supernatural||**Rated:** PG  
**Challenges:** Diversity Writing, GX: Fused World, L2, 2000-6000 wpc; One Character Boot Camp, Marufuji Ryou, #19, rebel; Include The Word, #47, multipy; Chapter Set Boot Camp, #24, 50 chaptrs; Advent 2015-2016, GX, bonus #1: roll for fic length: between 100,000-200,000 words; Christmas Advent 2017, New Year's Special, start a new fic and update it once a week; Epic Masterclass, YGO GX, #4, AU Space  
**Notes:** Same universe as **Raised To His Word** but featuring other characters. A little backstory will appear as well. Also, the character notes up top here will change depending on who is involved in each chapter.  
**Summary:** The first strike in war involves doing as much damage as you possibly can – such as taking one of your enemy's strongest warriors and using him to get the strongest weapons. Ryou never thought he'd enjoy being a vampire but this is a whole new level. Perhaps it's a good thing he has a teacher and some new friends to help him out.

* * *

Ryou knew he wasn't awake. Or if he were awake, he couldn't move, still couldn't see or hear or feel anything that wasn't the cold dirt-laced stone underneath. There was only an awareness that slowly worked its way into him once again. Perhaps the first cousin of being awake.

He remembered having heard somewhere that sleep and death were kindred – something from ancient mythology. Having come so close to death that he'd seen glimpses of what lay after and then being pulled back from it, and having slept as well, he knew there wasn't much difference between the two. He could sleep, and usually did. But death wasn't something he could experience.

Vague flickers that weren't exactly dreams and couldn't have been whatever happened around him slid their way through his mind. Perhaps being trapped in this endless nightmare that was neither sleep nor death brought back those old memories in more and more vivid color and life.

Seven years. He'd been a mere teenager, seventeen, and convinced of several things – life was absolutely fair and if he fought a fair duel he needed nothing else. With all his soul, he'd believed that. If he fought alongside his Cyber deck, then he needed nothing more.

He also believed, lightly and carelessly, that he would live forever. He'd never had reason to think otherwise. Why should he have? He'd never been sick a day in his life, let alone had an injury of any kind. He, his parents, and his brother lived in a well to do town, and he'd even been able to go to the Cyber Dojo for a few years. That was where he'd learned his faith in absolute fairness and respect.

Seventeen, on the cusp of manhood, making plans to go out into the world, as was the custom in the town, and convinced that nothing in the world could ever hurt him. The worst thing in his life was trying to convince Shou that being a respectful duelist would be far better than whatever else Shou seemed to be going for.

His eighteenth birthday fell in mid-fall, a month or so after the fall equinox. It wasn't the best weather for traveling, but after spending a few years at the Cyber Dojo, he thought he could handle it. His parents encouraged him, assuring him that with his Cyber Dragons he'd be more than capable of handling himself.

Two days before he would start his journey, everything changed. He made his way through the town, considering going over to the Tenjoins and seeing what Fubuki was up to. He'd been more than a little grumpy since their parents sent Asuka to foster with the Amazons.

He didn't exactly hum as he walked, but more because he wasn't the type to hum than because he wasn't in the mood. The sun rode high in the sky, pouring warmth and light down.

Vampires were absolutely the last thing on his mind as he turned down an alleyway that would bring him to the Tenjoins a few minutes faster. There really wasn't a need for him to consider them. He'd heard they existed, but he'd never met one. He'd seen plenty of spirits, even beyond the Cyber ones that accumulated at the Cyber Dojo. But never vampires of any kind beyond rumors.

Try as he might, Ryou never remembered entirely how it happened. The Tenjoin home rose a short distance on the other side of the alleyway where he would emerge. He'd thought more of what he and Fubuki could do together than anything else. Fubuki would want to come on his journey, and he looked forward to the company.

Then, without a scrap of warning, a dark curtain fell in between him and the rest of the world. It wasn't much unlike his experience now, except then it seemed to last forever.

When his head cleared and he could see around again, he wasn't in his town. He wasn't in his home and he wasn't anywhere that he knew at all. He wore the same clothes, but a frantic check revealed that he didn't have his deck anymore, and that chains bound him to a sturdy stone wall.

For what seemed like hours he yanked and yelled, his voice echoing faintly back from the walls of the tiny cell he found himself. He only stopped when he couldn't crank another word out of his dry throat.

Without any way to keep track of time, he wasn't certain of how long he'd been awake before the door swung open and a tiny fairy fluttered in – he didn't recognize their card. Not much taller than his hand, with five stripes of hair in green, blue, violet, white, and orange, and wearing a simple pale gray wrap, she hovered in front of his face.

She peered into his eyes for a few moments, saying nothing, then darted back out the door. Ryou stared there, trying to figure out where he was. All he could see was an empty corridor, crafted of dark stones.

A few minutes later, a tall figure entered. He did recognize this spirit – Noble D'Noir. He'd once dueled someone who used that card, though the duelist hadn't been in touch with the spirit, as far as Ryou himself knew. Dueling cards without spirits didn't have much thrill for him.

Noble D'Noir eyed him up and down, his lips pulling back to reveal his sharp fangs. "I'm certain you wish to know what you're doing here."

"Tell me!" Ryou demanded, glad that he'd at least encountered someone who would talk to him. "Where am I? What do you want with me?"

Noble D'Noir shrugged eloquently. "I want little with you. I need to taste you, of course, to see if you're suitable for her Ladyship, but do you want anything with the cows or pigs that you slaughter before eating them?"

Rage choked off rails of denial before they could drop from his lips. Ryou yanked harder at the chains holding him, wanting to get away, and not able to do anything as Noble D'Noir approached him. One hand fit tightly against the side of his head, holding it into place. Ryou wriggled as Noble D'Noir peered into his eyes, something starting to feel as if it crawled around his mind.

Then, the creature leaned in closer and a sharp, blinding pain shot through him from his neck. Ryou couldn't move, the chains kept him where he was, and there wasn't a flicker of energy beyond that.

When the pain faded away, Ryou slumped against the wall, his eyes half-closed, his heart racing, attempting to gulp in air and not doing the very best job of it. If the chains didn't keep him up, he thought that he would've fallen, his legs were that weak.

Noble D'Noir licked his lips clean of Ryou's blood. "I think that you'll need a few good feedings before I hand you over to Lord Ruthven and Lady Camula. But your blood is excellent. They'll be able to feed off of you for quite some time."

Ryou couldn't bring up a single word. The thought of being some vampire's blood slave infuriated him beyond the capability of words to describe. But even if he'd been able to say anything, Noble D'Noir wouldn't have cared. He turned and left, the door closing behind him.

There wasn't any light here. That wasn't a surprise, now that Ryou knew he'd been abducted by vampires. The room wasn't airtight, but wherever the air came from, he couldn't reach it. All he could do was hang there, his neck still aching, more than a little dizzy, and worried about what else could happen.

Time stretched out before him, endless and empty. There wasn't anyone to talk to. He couldn't even walk; the chains didn't have that kind of reach. As much as he wanted to get out and go home, he couldn't guess on how to do that. He needed to be able to fight, and he didn't have any tools to do so.

It couldn't have been much longer before the door opened again and a new servant stood there. Again someone that he didn't recognize, a quiet mousy creature of indeterminate gender, who scurried over while holding a tray of food. The scent hit him hard and his stomach growled in anticipation. He hadn't realized how hungry he was until now.

"Are you going to unchain me?" Ryou asked, a faint hope of being able to use the tray to fight his way out. He'd heard stories of things like that happening and perhaps he could do it if he tried hard.

"No." That was Noble D'Noir's voice and he stepped into the cell, a smug little tilt to his lips. "You're going to stay chained until Lady Camula or Lord Ruthven want you not to be." Noble D'Noir eyed him in amusement. "And it will take at least until spring before I have you brought to them. You need proper feeding and training before then."

Ryou growled, a sudden surge of rage sending him yanking at his chains again, but nothing changed. Noble D'Noir shook his head.

"And that's why you need to be trained. You're a slave now – a blood slave for the leaders of the vampires. You need to accept your fate." Noble D'Noir's lips thinned in amusement for a few seconds. "Really, this is the best thing that could happen to you. Because there's the slim chance that you could earn their approval enough for them to turn you. Then you'd be one of us."

"I'd rather die." Ryou declared at once. Noble D'Noir chuckled ever so softly.

"That's what would happen then. But you would return. There are few turned humans. But you could be one of them. It's a great honor, one not given to many even after the Great Fusion."

Ryou shook his head, wincing at the way his neck throbbed. "I'd rather die and not come back." He didn't think that he would have had to be that specific.

"I don't believe that decision is yours." Noble D'Noir gestured to the servant, who removed the cover from the plate, revealing one of the better meals that Ryou thought he'd ever seen in his life. They'd always eaten well, but this seemed so much better: well roasted beef, vegetables that he'd only seen a few times, hot and fresh baked bread, and a flask of rare wine.

At first he wasn't sure how Noble D'Noir intended for him to eat if he wasn't unchained. There wasn't enough room for him to move his hands. He received a very unwelcome answer when the vampire raised the first bit of bread to Ryou's lips.

His first thought was to refuse it. He didn't want to be fed like this. But the food's aromas called to him and he'd heard rumors about how vampires could control the minds and bodies of others.

_If I refuse, he'll force me to eat regardless. He's not going to take no for an answer. I'd rather eat because I want to, not because he makes me._

He didn't like it at all, but the longer he hesitated, the more Noble D'Noir looked as if he were a few breaths away from forcing it down his throat. Finally Ryou opened his mouth and took the bread in. It tasted every bit as good as he'd thought it might from the scent alone.

Noble D'Noir fed him by hand carefully, small bites and small sips of the wine, until the tray had been cleared and Ryou's stomach settled down.

"This is the quality of food that you'll enjoy as their blood pet," Noble D'Noir told him. "Much better than the slop you're used to, isn't it?"

"We don't eat slop," Ryou grated out. The other chuckled for a few seconds.

"You'll think differently after a while. Get some rest. I'll return later for your lessons."

That wasn't what Ryou wanted to hear. Eating was one thing; he needed to keep his strength up. But whatever lessons Noble D'Noir wanted him to know, he wasn't interested in.

But the servant and the vampire left him in the dark and still cell, unable to do anything except stay where he was.

Time passed. Ryou had no idea of how much. What he knew was that Noble D'Noir returned at irregular intervals to either feed him or take him out for exercise. He wasn't exactly put on a leash, but Ryou suspected if he tried to run away, he would be.

And he would've tried if he'd been able to walk more than a few steps at a time without assistance. The longer he stayed chained to the wall, the more his legs cramped and he longed for those walks to make certain he could _keep_ walking.

Noble D'Noir's way to teach obedience wasn't that difficult, either. He simply removed everything that Ryou needed – sunlight, water, food, any company that wasn't Noble D'Noir himself, the ability to go where he pleased when he pleased – and only allowed Ryou to experience those when he obeyed orders.

"Bend your head," Noble D'Noir instructed, his eyes on Ryou's neck. Ryou held back a sigh and told himself that he would get not only a meal out of this – he didn't even know what meal, they were all alike – but perhaps some time to walk freely. Not in the sun, of course. Noble D'Noir only walked him up and down the corridors of this castle, and nowhere did he see a bit of sunlight.

He tilted his head to the wide and didn't move as the vampire once again plunged his fangs into Ryou's neck. The more this happened, the more Ryou managed to keep his awareness of what happened. It wasn't anything he wanted to know, in truth. He could hear Noble D'Noir slurping his blood, feel that hideous tongue touching the twin wounds made to urge the blood out of him.

Noble D'Noir still hadn't truly freed him. Even if he wasn't bound to the wall, the chains kept his wrists securely fastened behind his back, and there were more chains on his ankles, so he couldn't flee like that, either.

Ryou wanted to get out more than he'd ever wanted anything in his life. He wanted to see his parents and his brother, see Fubuki, find out if Asuka returned from her fostering, speak to his old teacher Samejima again. What he wanted, he didn't think that he'd ever get.

"Blood slaves have two fates," Noble D'Noir told him at some point. "Sometimes three if they're quite lucky. Most common their masters feed on them until they simply can't provide blood anymore, no matter how well they're taken care of. You're quite healthy, though. It's not likely that will be your fate."

Ryou could not bring himself to rejoice in that thought. "What are the other two?" He managed to ask. At least he was allowed to ask questions. He didn't always get answers, but he could ask.

This, however, Noble D'Noir answered. "If they please their masters, and if there is room for them in the hierarchy, they may be turned. A few centuries of service and you could even be assigned a territory of your own instead of serving at their feet."

That got a shudder from Ryou. He didn't want either of those fates. Being a vampire might make him 'free' but not the kind of free that he truly wanted.

"Last, and least of all, those blood slaves who survive, but aren't useful as blood slaves anymore. Those we end up selling on the common slave block. What happens to you then depends on who buys you." Noble D'Noir gave him a very measuring look. "I think that's what your fate will be if you're not turned. You're something of a duelist, I hear. There are masters who would enjoy an obedient duelist warrior such as you."

That sounded almost as horrible as being a vampire, if not somewhat more. But it also offered the chance to escape and return home somehow. He wasn't going to give up hope, not completely.

_That's it, then. I'll find a way to escape, no matter how long it takes. No matter what I have to do._

Playing fair, treating all those against him with respect, wasn't going to accomplish anything. Not in this new life he'd been unwillingly thrust into.

Looking back, Ryou couldn't have pinned a specific moment when he'd made his decision. He entered into that captivity with the innocent notion that life was fair and if he fought well, then it would continue to be fair. He learned very quickly that life wasn't fair and he'd been picked more or less by dumb luck – Noble D'Noir lurked in that alleyway and picked the first person that crossed his path that he thought would make a good impression on his lord and lady.

When spring came, he hadn't seen the sun in months and he seldom thought about it anymore. He almost couldn't wrap his head around the concept of talking to someone who wasn't Noble D'Noir. None of the servants spoke to him in any fashion and he didn't bother asking eventually. What was the use, when he didn't even know if the servants _could_ talk? All he had to fill the craving for conversation was Noble D'Noir's patient instruction on how to do what he was told and what life would be like when he came to live with Lady Camula and Lord Ruthven.

Ryou learned. Ryou endured to reach a time he wasn't certain if would ever even happen. He'd chosen a goal for himself – the simple goal of survival, no matter what he had to do. He might never see his family again, but it would not be because he didn't try. It might be because he ended up outliving them.

He couldn't be sure. But he had so much that he had to know and do now, and it would all get started when Noble D'Noir took him to the vampire monarch's castle.

* * *

**To Be Continued**

**Notes:** So, some Ryou backstory. There will be more, because Things Happened once he meets Camula and Ruthven. This is all plot relevant to the war, too.


	7. Chapter 7

**Series:** World of Fusion||**Title:** War of the Undead  
**Characters:** Samejima, O'Brien, Fairy of the Foutain (Izumi), Water Dancer (Sienna)||**Ship:** N/A  
**Chapters:** 7-50||**Chapter Words:** 3,064||**Total Words:** 21,423  
**Genre:** Drama, Supernatural||**Rated:** PG  
**Challenges:** Diversity Writing, GX: Fused World, L2, 2000-6000 wpc; One Character Boot Camp, Marufuji Ryou, #19, rebel; Include The Word, #47, multipy; Chapter Set Boot Camp, #24, 50 chaptrs; Advent 2015-2016, GX, bonus #1: roll for fic length: between 100,000-200,000 words; Christmas Advent 2017, New Year's Special, start a new fic and update it once a week; Epic Masterclass, YGO GX, #4, AU Space  
**Notes:** Same universe as **Raised To His Word** but featuring other characters. A little backstory will appear as well. Also, the character notes up top here will change depending on who is involved in each chapter.  
**Summary:** The first strike in war involves doing as much damage as you possibly can – such as taking one of your enemy's strongest warriors and using him to get the strongest weapons. Ryou never thought he'd enjoy being a vampire but this is a whole new level. Perhaps it's a good thing he has a teacher and some new friends to help him out. [[MORE]]

* * *

Samejima wasn't certain if Izumi and her sister knew very much about humans – from the way they talked to him he didn't think so. But they clearly knew how to cook in a fashion that provided delicious food, as he learned raising spoonful after spoonful of a tasty meaty stew into his mouth.

He wasn't sure if he wanted to ask what the meat was, or the seasonings, or the vegetables. All of it combined to make one of the best meals he had when he wasn't at the Cyber Dojo, regardless.

A faintly scented breeze brushed by his cheek, bringing with it a sound that he didn't want to hear – the sound of zombies moaning. Samejima set the empty bowl down, one hand creeping towards his deck at the same time.

"I told you," Izumi said with a shake of her head, rising up from the fountain's waters. "Zombies can't even see our gates. They won't get in. Trust me."

Cyber Ogre flickered into being in front of him, head tilted forward. **She speaks truth, my friend. For so long as the wards hold steady, this place cannot be seen by the undead.**

Samejima started to nod, then froze. "Does that include vampires?" A day or two before he would've been very thrilled to hear yes. Knowing about Ryou made him want a different answer.

"Yes." Izumi's sister, Sienna, appeared next to her. "Only those who have a pulse will not be affected by the wards, and of those who are evil, we have other ways to deal with them." A ribbon of water wove through her fingertips, forming itself into the shape of a dragon's head before it faded away.

Samejima nodded. He still didn't like to hear the zombies as they moaned their way past. He'd spent far too much time trying to flee from their grasping hands.

He remembered – before the Great Fusion. Before life changed for every human on Earth That Was and the spirits and monsters of the other dimensions as well. When he'd been a boy with no idea of the future that lay ahead of him.

When he'd snuck out against his parents' wishes to go see what he'd thought would be a fun movie and it ended up being about monsters that devoured human flesh. He'd had nightmares for days running and only confessing to his parents and getting them to tell him over and over again for weeks that such creatures were nothing but fiction and could never genuinely hurt him allowed him to sleep at night again.

_Only now they are real._ Zombies and far more were real; creatures that he'd never even dreamed of before they'd become a permanent part of the new world.

There were moments when he wondered what life might have been like if Brron never fused the worlds. He didn't often. But at times like this, when faced with the chance of someone stealing the Sangenma, or with what had happened to Ryou, he _wondered_ what was meant to be and what wasn't.

A heavy fist fell on the doors to the fountain garden and all three of them looked up. The fist fell again, then there was a flicker of a small creature passing through it.

"Sienna! Sienna!" The tiny dragon darted towards her companion and curled happily around her. "I'm back and I found out things! And even better!" The dragon wriggled from snout to tail-tip. "I found a person who knows _more_ things!" She arched her head around to look at the gates. "You should probably let him in. There are zombies out there."

Sienna and Izumi both hurried there, both of them resting their hands on the broad door for a few seconds before the door swung open. Samejima thought he felt a whisper of magical energy – every human alive was more or less sensitive to that these days – and he remained on edge even as the newcomer entered.

This was a burly young man perhaps a scant year or two younger than Ryou – than Ryou should have been. Samejima wasn't certain of the proper terms. He carried no goods or packs of any kind, and his clothes were tattered and torn, his skin mottled with dark bruises and remnants of wounds.

He cast a glance between the three of them, and Samejima realized how close he was to simply falling over of sheer exhaustion. The old man rose to his feet and held a hand out.

"Before you try to tell us anything, you should get some rest. You look exhausted."

Izumi gave the new arrival a very measuring look before she nodded. "He's right. I can heal your wounds with the Fountain's water, but you should rest. Then we can find out what you know."

Sienna gave him a very in-depth look of her own. "Fairy Dragon trusts you or you wouldn't be here," she said at last. "If you bring harm of any kind here willingly, then you'll be cast out – and there will be no dragon anywhere that will hesitate to make you pay for what you've done. If you intend no wrong, then we will help you as best we can." She rested one hand on her chest. "You may call me Sienna. This is my sister Izumi and our guest Samejima. And you are?"

"Austin O'Brien," he said after a few moments spent staring at the three. "Call me O'Brien. I don't need to rest right now. Not as much as you need to know this – the zombies are going to find this place sooner or later, no matter how well you hide it."

"What makes you think that?" Samejima wanted to know, not quite feeling safe again until the gates to the fountain garden closed and locked themselves again.

O'Brien took a few careful steps. For all that he claimed he needed no rest, Samejima suspected he would fall over at a moment's notice. Only tremendous strength of will kept him going.

"Because there are more people involved in this than zombies. I can't say for certain who, but … do you know about the fire at Sunsdown?" When Samejima nodded, O'Brien continued. "I saw it was set by an archer using fire arrows. There are not many zombies who can do that."

Samejima had to agree. He'd heard rumors, of course, because rumors spawned off cards and stories and myths and legends would run forever, but he'd never yet met a zombie who could use a bow.

"I didn't see them well enough to recognize them by daylight. I spent most of last night trying to extinguish the fire." He settled himself down on one of the benches. "I think I should start this at the beginning. When I first came to Sunsdown."

All of the others made themselves as comfortable as they could, save for Izumi, who hurried off to spoon up a fresh dish of stew for the new arrival. Fortified by the food, O'Brien began to spin the tale.

* * *

He'd arrived in Sunsdown perhaps two months earlier. His intent had been to move onward; his goal was to find the local vampire in charge and speak with whomsoever that was. This was, after all, part of those lands ruled by Lady Camula and Lord Ruthven and those who served underneath them.

But there hadn't been a sign of that vampire and no one who lived in Sunsdown wished to speak to him about that. No, they said over and over, they had no vampires here, they wanted none, and they did _not_ belong to the vampire overlords, no matter what foolish outsiders might have to say.

O'Brien wasn't going to tell them otherwise. He could see denial when it stared him in the face and he suspected that when – or if – the vampire in charge of the area showed up, then the locals would be reminded of their allegiance very quickly.

What he also learned quite quickly was that this place also held a priest of some kind. A priest or preacher; the name itself meant very little, but he continually waved that talisman of his and gathered the people together on a regular basis to preach to them about the horrors of monsters and magic and how all that wasn't human should either serve humans or not exist. Attending one of those meetings had been more than enough for O'Brien. He'd grown up alongside spirits and monsters and humans, learning their fighting styles as well as what his father taught him, and so far as he cared, there wasn't much difference between humans and non humans. Not to mention if anyone ever dared to raise a hand against Arethusa, then he would not entirely hold himself responsible for what he did to them. She could handle herself, but some things were simply not to be tolerated lightly. So he'd passed his time pretending that he stayed here only because of the weather or rumors of bandits along the roads – he'd never met the bandit that he couldn't take down – or whatever other excuse he could conjure as he searched and waited for the local head vampire.

When the night of the fire came, he thought that he'd spied the vampire. Or rather, he'd noticed _a_ vampire and he'd unfortunately not had the chance to find out if this were the one that he'd been waiting for.

During the two months he'd learned that all of those who'd shown even a scrap of magical talent were driven out of the village and told if they ever returned, they would be slain. Any magical beings who dared to cross into the village were also driven out, and if they dared to fight back, then the villagers rose up and slew them without mercy.

Some of the villagers weren't happy about this and those were the ones that O'Brien watched carefully. Some of them had kin who'd been driven out or whose custom depended on travelers, those of which became far fewer as the weeks passed and word spread of Sunsdown's growing lack of hospitality.

Many things had changed in the wake of the Great Fusion. Hospitality to travelers was one of those things – those who traveled between settlements of any size were expected to be courteous to their hosts, sharing their food and bringing no harm. Those who extended their hospitality were expected to have the places offered to rest being clean and free of vermin of all types, while whatever recompense they requested being reasonable. There were many hostlers and innkeepers who accepted nothing more than a little help around their establishments for a warm bed and a meal.

Sunsdown wasn't that way, not anymore, and O'Brien ached to know what reputation grew in the outer lands. He would check into that, once he managed to get to those lands. He'd expected to stay there longer, especially after the fire. Surely they would need help to clean up and rebuild.

But there matters did not go as he suspected. The priest insisted that everyone simply stay near the river, gathering what little food they could, and preached in echoing tones to the hungry, cold populace.

"The vampire is responsible for our home being destroyed! When we rebuild – and we will – we must make certain that none of their foul kind can ever enter here again! Our new home – the new, brighter Sunsrise, must be consecrated and made a holy place so that any undead beings stay far away from it!" He waved the talisman again. "There are gemstones in those mountains we can mine and trade to other _humans_ and we shall use them to build the new Sunrise!"

O'Brien wondered how much of this was fear-talk and how much was actual fact. It would make more sense, in his opinion, to clean up the rubble and then to move somewhere else. It wasn't such a bad idea to try to mine the gems and trade for more money. It also wasn't a bad idea to live in the mountains. He'd never known a mountain that could burn.

And when he raised his voice to protest, the priest stared down at him with hate burning in those madman's eyes.

"You are not one of us," the priest proclaimed, that pointing finger now directed toward him. "You have no say in what we do or where we go. You're an _outsider_." He turned his attention to the villagers. "Do you recall how he has asked for the vampires? How he has supported them in their false attempt to claim dominance over us all?" Again that finger jabbed at O'Brien. "He called the vampires and the zombies there to burn our home down!"

O'Brien wanted to think that under ordinary circumstances this wouldn't have worked. The people would've laughed off the accusation or merely given him untrusting glances at worst.

But after the exhausting night they'd all had, the air still stiff with zombie stench, and the rumors that ran wild about the vampire that had been seen by more than one person during the height of the flames, the people did not laugh it off or stare at him.

That part of what happened remained bitterly clear in his mind for the rest of his life – stones being thrown, burned sticks raised against him, cracking against him, those who knew the use of weapons and still held them raising them against him, and above it all, the haranguing voice of the priest insisting that it would be best for all of them if he never left these ruins alive.

O'Brien left them alive. Not because the survivors weren't capable of what the priest insisted that they do, but for the simple fact that he fled before they could actually kill him. He did not doubt that if the chance arose, if the priest needed a target to keep them all together and focused, then he would be exceeded as that target only by that vampire.

* * *

"That vampire you saw is Marufuji Ryou," Samejima said, fingers interlaced together. "He was a student of mine as a child. He saved me from a zombie hoard and we were on the way elsewhere when we saw Sunsdown burning and stopped to see what was going on."

O'Brien nodded, setting his third bowl of stew, scraped down to the last bits, aside. His eyes drooped; the more that he'd spoken, the wearier he'd become.

"He fought someone while he was there. I couldn't see who, but they captured him and said something about wanting me. I can only think of one reason." Samejima did not often speak of the Sangenma, especially to those what he knew very little about. But he had no other options at the moment. "There are three very powerful demons bound into cards. Those demons have been in the guardianship of a certain line for a very long time."

Even he wasn't certain of how long. There were many stories and not all of them tallied up with one another. But the details didn't matter so much as the fact the Sangenma, the three Mythic Demons, were weapons that no one should ever use.

"I am the current guardian of those cards. They're concealed behind barriers that cannot be broken save by certain methods. One of them involves dueling – seven duels, in fact, one for each of the keys that protect them." He shook his head. "But I've never met enough duelists strong enough to do so."

O'Brien nodded. He held on to being conscious by sheer force of will and nothing more now. "What are the others?"

"There are beings who are strong enough to bypass the protections. Those are few indeed, but if the one who seeks them now is one of those, then that one could simply break the seals and he would have all of that power to command." Samejima swallowed and his hand felt for the nearest cup of water. "I don't know if that's what they want or even if that's what they are after. But it's what I fear and what I must guard against."

Sienna rested a hand on his shoulder without warning. "So long as you remain here, you will be safe from any that seek you, for your knowledge or whatever else they desire. Surely they will accept this and seek some other way than these demons to do as they wish."

Samejima wanted to believe that. But he slowly shook his head. "I need to get Ryou away from wherever he is now. The one that I saw – he took pleasure in what he did. And I think he intends to kill Ryou the first chance that he can – or worse."

He didn't know how to stop that. He didn't even know where to start looking. Perhaps Cyber Ogre could help – all Cyber beasts were kin, after all, no matter how distant, and they knew Ryou's Cyber Dragons well enough to track them with some effort.

Fairy Dragon, still cuddled into Sienna's arms, twitched, raising her head. "Ryou? That's the vampire, isn't he?"

Samejima nodded, a wild hope springing up in the depths of his heart. "Did you see him?"

"Nope!"

Fresh-born hope began to fade.

"I sort of smelled him. But there was too much zombie to smell around there." She wrinkled her nose. "I tried really hard, but that place has zombies everywhere. I can't see them, but they're there!"

O'Brien frowned. "I agree. I smelled zombie stench as well, but I saw only a few last night, and they cleared out by this morning. But the stench was so strong that there should have been more around."

"Where do zombies go where you can't see them but you can smell them?" Samejima wondered, more from vague wondering than anything else.

Then he and O'Brien both sat up, staring at one another, the realization dawning on them in that same heartbeat.

"They're underground," O'Brien murmured. "They buried themselves underground to hide. They'll come out when they're called – when no one's looking and no one can expect them."

Samejima paled as he turned to the other man. "The survivors – they're not going to expect anything. They're being kept there without any protections and being kept distracted by false promises." He swallowed before he said the last. "They're going to become zombies too."

* * *

**To Be Continued**

**Notes:** The original _Night of the Living Dead_ came out in 1968. That would've been about three years or so before the Great Fusion in this world.

Also, the person O'Brien thinks of, Arethusa? If you don't know who she is, then read my soulmate AU fic **Fire and Water**.

More and more pieces of the puzzle falling together.


	8. Chapter 8

**Series:** World of Fusion||**Title:** War of the Undead  
**Characters:** Ryou, Noble D'Noir||**Ship:** N/A  
**Chapters:** 8-50||**Chapter Words:** 3,049||**Total Words:** 24,472  
**Genre:** Drama, Supernatural||**Rated:** PG  
**Challenges:** Diversity Writing, GX: Fused World, L2, 2000-6000 wpc; One Character Boot Camp, Marufuji Ryou, #19, rebel; Include The Word, #47, multipy; Chapter Set Boot Camp, #24, 50 chaptrs; Advent 2015-2016, GX, bonus #1: roll for fic length: between 100,000-200,000 words; Christmas Advent 2017, New Year's Special, start a new fic and update it once a week; Epic Masterclass, YGO GX, #4, AU Space  
**Notes:** Same universe as **Raised To His Word** but featuring other characters. A little backstory will appear as well. Also, the character notes up top here will change depending on who is involved in each chapter.  
**Summary:** The first strike in war involves doing as much damage as you possibly can – such as taking one of your enemy's strongest warriors and using him to get the strongest weapons. Ryou never thought he'd enjoy being a vampire but this is a whole new level. Perhaps it's a good thing he has a teacher and some new friends to help him out.

* * *

Ryou wanted to keep remembering. He'd not thought about Noble D'Noir and what happened in some time. His time with the vampire nobleman hadn't been his favorite by far. He refused to think of himself as broken in any fashion, but he'd learned whether he wanted to or not. He hadn't really had a choice. Noble D'Noir made it so very clear that if he didn't do as he was told, there would be no food, no water, no light, nothing at all but the endless shadows.

Ryou craved the light too much to let that happen. Not just the light of day but candlelight, lantern-light, the light that came from enchanted stones. So regardless of his own wishes, he'd found himself obeying to get that light.

_At least I survived. I made it to their castle._ Oh, he'd never forget his first sight of that place. Noble D'Noir and he started on that trip in the early part of spring, after the equinox, as the warmth rose and travel became easier.

He'd said nothing. He hadn't been told to. He'd never been much of a talker to begin with, and after the last handful of months, he found it harder than ever to crank the words out.

At the time there had been another reason. He tried to drag that back from the depths of memory but it slipped away, leaving little more than the sensation that he would know it when he needed to. It was just that now wasn't the time. The time wouldn't be – for a while. Quite a while.

Camula and Ruthven's castle rose up from the mountains and looked to have been crafted from those very mountains, jagged and craggy, with windows lit by magic and a stream tumbling nearby. From the moment Ryou saw it, he knew that this place would remain hidden in shadows by day and by night. The perfect home for those who shunned the sun.

Noble D'Noir murmured something as they came within view, but Ryou didn't quite grasp it. He could see the way that the vampire stared at the castle, however: a hunger even deeper than the hunger for blood, a need to own that sang along the vampire's bloodstream.

Noble D'Noir wanted this place to be his. Whether he wanted the responsibilities of leadership that went with it, Ryou didn't know, and didn't care a great deal either. He saw nothing beyond a large building that was probably contained more vampires and more slaves than he wanted to deal with.

The long road that led up to the gates unwound like a silver stream in the moonlight. The iron wrought gates opened as they approached, with two armed guards bowing them in. As soon as the carriage stopped and the door opened, there were servants there as well, dressed in fine regalia.

"Greetings to you, your Lordship," one of the servants said as Noble D'Noir took his first steps into the courtyard. "Lady Camula and Lord Ruthven will greet you at dinner."

Noble D'Noir smiled, his teeth flashing in the moonlight. "Of course. I've brought their new slave with me." He gestured towards Ryou, now garbed in a simple outfit of pale gray, the usual wear of a blood slave. He didn't wear a collar, because Ruthven and Camula would have one for him, or so he'd been told.

He didn't look forward to that at all.

"Of course, my lord," the servant said with another low sweeping bow. "Would you like to keep him with you or should he be taken to the slave quarters?"

Ryou recalled stories his parents told him – that in the days before the Great Fusion, in the world of humans, slaves weren't allowed. Or so _their_ parents had told them. Like him, they'd only ever known this world.

Teacher Samejima told him similar stories, about how the worlds had been separate once, until Brron achieved Super Fusion and welded the twelve dimensions into one. So much had changed since then. So many deaths – humans had gone from billions to perhaps a few million. No one had ever done a full counting of all the spirits and monsters in the other worlds, but they'd suffered their own losses as well.

Unfortunately, Brron hadn't been one of those, and many of those who survived were the types who quickly recovered and began to forge new realms in the new world.

Such as Camula, rumored to have been the last of the vampires in the world of humans before the fusion. Ryou vividly remembered the lessons he'd learned about that – Camula survived the loss of her people and put herself into a deep sleep that would last for centuries, and only awakened because of the power of the Great Fusion.

No one knew exactly if she'd created her realm before or after she met Ruthven. She'd never given herself a precise biography of what happened after her awakening. But regardless, Ruthven, also known as the Vampire Summoner, wed her shortly after the realm celebrated its tenth anniversary. Ever since, in the spring, parties were held to commemorate both events, wedding and realm.

And blood slaves were the most common gift, since two vampires went through several in the course of a year.

Noble D'Noir took Ryou along to the quarters set aside for him. Ryou wasn't certain which he would've preferred, but he also wasn't surprised that he hadn't been consulted on the matter. His opinions hadn't mattered since the day Noble D'Noir took him captive.

_Would I even know how to have an opinion?_ He thought he might. He sort of remembered having opinions and being able to express them. Perhaps.

"You'll remain here until I tell you otherwise. Your dinner will be brought soon, and you'll be taken to Camula and Ruthven tonight," Noble D'Noir told him. Ryou nodded, going to sit where he'd been told. He cast a quick glance around the room, taking in the well-made furnishings, a soft and plush couch and two matching chairs, all covered in the finest of embroideries, tapestries on the wall in place of windows, and a door that led to another room. He suspected that would be Noble D'Noir's bedroom. A second door hinted at the possibility of a bathing chamber of some kind.

He also saw two walls' worth of bookcases full of books. Noble D'Noir took one of those and settled into the finest chair in the room, absorbed in it within moments. Ryou didn't recognize the title, but he thought that was more because he didn't read whatever the language was: not what had once been called Japanese. The language of his ancestors. He wasn't even sure if the other old tongues survived. Traveling might have told him that – if he'd ever been able to do it.

_What if they know?_ His thoughts turned a bit sluggishly towards Camula and Ruthven. Tales existed of how far vampiric influence spread. Rumor ran rampant they even had a spy inside of Brron's deadly court. Perhaps he'd have the chance to ask. Assuming they ever saw him as something other than a blood source possessed of the ability to speak.

Ryou's mind flickered between the now and the then. There wasn't anything in the now to really keep himself focused on. Just the endless sameness of the dirt beneath him and the growing hunger that he could do nothing about.

At least he could feel that hunger. It was different from the nothingness he'd felt since that darkness that wasn't sleep and wasn't death clamped down onto him. Perhaps that meant the spell that bound him would fade away soon.

If it did, he would be on the edge of a frenzy. He hadn't fed when he'd needed to and he didn't think the archer knew that. Which meant he wouldn't be fed, and so when he got the chance…

Ryou never cared much about if he hurt someone else or not. He'd stopped caring once he stopped breathing. But now, the idea of sinking his fangs into that archer and feeding until _he_ stopped breathing entertained him as nothing had in so very long.

In the then, he could all but see himself seated in Noble D'Noir's quarters, Noble D'Noir himself ensconced in the chair, deeply absorbed in the novel, a very satisfied smirk across his lips, as if nothing could have been better suited for what he wanted. Whatever that might be.

Ryou hadn't known that then and he didn't know it now. What he remembered was nearly an hour of sitting in silence, until the servant tapped briefly on the door, then poked her head into the room.

"Lady Camula and Lord Ruthven summon you to the celebration, my lord," she announced. "Please bring along your gift."

"Of course." Noble D'Noir set aside the book and gestured for Ryou to follow him. Ryou, of course, did, his legs moving without any real input from his brain.

It took a few minutes to reach where the celebration was held – a vast room filled with vampires, spirits and those who had been turned alike. The latter ones were few and far between, and clearly deferred to those who were spirits. There were also a few humans, but those were mostly blood slaves. One could tell those apart from the ones who _weren't_ by the fact the blood slaves all were dressed in garments that reflected their masters, including their collars. Free humans visiting for the purposes of celebration wore much more elaborate garments.

Ryou could hear the soft whispers as he followed Noble D'Noir. Most of them in reference to him circled around his height, his vividly robust health, and how sweet his blood scented the air. At least none of them made an attempt to draw his blood out themselves.

Noble D'Noir guided him through the crowd until they stood before the twin thrones placed in the center of the chamber. Ryou kept his eyes cast down as best that he could and waited. He knew what would come next. Noble D'Noir had instructed him quite thoroughly on what would happen.

"Lady Camula, Lord Ruthven," Noble D'Noir said, executing a careful and rehearsed bow. "You have my felicitations on this, the anniversary of our beautiful realm and your wedding."

"A pleasure to see you again," Camula spoke, her voice relaxed and at ease. "And I presume this is your gift to us?"

"That he is." Noble D'Noir gestured Ryou forward. "May I introduce Marufuji Ryou? A very well-trained blood slave – and a tasty one, at that. I've sampled him enough to be certain he can tolerate being fed from, and I suspect that when he's worn out, he'll either bring a fine price as a warrior slave, or perhaps even worth turning."

Ryou didn't look up until Camula and Ruthven both rested a hand on his shoulders. His gaze flicked between them before he lowered it again, awaiting for permission to speak. It stuck in his craw to have to do that, but his training had been thorough indeed.

"What an attractive one we have here," Camula purred, gaze going up and down. "I think Noble D'Noir may be right. He could be quite useful. Don't you agree, beloved?"

"I do indeed." Ruthven gave Ryou a penetrating look of his own. "But let's not race into this. We have time."

"Have him taken to the slave quarters next to our room," Camula ordered. "We'll have a good meal off of him tonight."

Ryou followed the servant assigned to him, unable to drag his attention from them. He would have liked to remain there, if only to look around and see who else was there, but his legs kept on obeying orders, taking him to the assigned quarters.

Camula and Ruthven's rooms were far more luxurious than the ones that Noble D'Noir had been assigned. There were more of them as well, though Ryou judged that only by the number of doors he saw as he was led to his own new room. There had to have been half a dozen of them aside from that, counting the entry room and the large sitting room that he did see.

The slave room itself had a well-made bed, with a very soft mattress, pillows, and blankets, the usual tapestries instead of windows, and a small shelf that held a gemstone emitting the only light that filled the room. It only had one door, which led directly into Camula and Ruthven's bedchamber.

Ryou decided right away that he hoped the walls between the two were soundproofed. There were quite a few things that he didn't want to hear.

"Wait here. You'll know when they summon you," the servant said, giving him something of a sad look. He hesitated before he spoke again, the faintest of whispers that only the two of them could hear right now. "It won't hurt that much and it won't take that long."

Ryou's only answer was a slight tilt of his head. He'd had Noble D'Noir feed from him already and he thought he could manage two of them doing that. He knew he'd find out all too soon.

Then. That had been then. This was now – and he could hear something. He heard footsteps, a single set of them, and one that was far, far too familiar.

"You are in such trouble, aren't you?" Noble D'Noir murmured, one toe nudging against him. "I know you can hear me. You can't answer, but you can hear me."

The faintest touch of fingertips against Ryou's shoulders. Ryou strained to form words but nothing would come at all. The elder vampire chuckled, a sound that Ryou hadn't heard in some time and knew that he hadn't missed.

"I can break the spell on you. I can get you out of here. I can bring you a meal. Everything that you need, I can provide."

A deep laugh, once again so familiar, and Ryou hated every sound of it. He'd always hated that. Obeying Noble D'Noir hadn't ever meant that he _liked_ the vampire.

"Isn't that familiar, too? Everything that you want or need is in my hands to give or keep away from you. I think that you know what comes next, then. You do what I want and you get what you need."

Noble D'Noir bent down closer. Ryou only knew that because of the whisper of not-quite breath that came from him. "I want you to listen to Theron when he returns. I want you to do exactly what he tells you to do. Oh, you argue some if it makes you feel better. But in the end you will submit to him, as you've always submitted to me. As you submitted to Camula and Ruthven."

A ghost of a laugh, if a vampire could be said to have such a thing. "You submit so very easily. I like that about you. I always have. You insist that you are so independent, that no one can break you, and _I_ did it in the span of a week."

Ryou would have reached up to tear out D'Noir's throat if he'd been capable of making the move. But the spell still kept him just where he was.

"I have my reasons for wanting you to obey him. If you like, you can think of yourself as a double agent. Obedient to your captors because you must feed like a good little vampire – gaining more information about them as you do, so when the time comes, we can destroy the zombies and all of those who support them forever."

Noble D'Noir paced around him. "Theron will return shortly. He's found someone to guard you while he's busy. And he'll bring along someone who you will feed from. I'll make certain they all survive long enough to get to you." His cold fingers rested against Ryou's skin. "Of course, you don't really get the chance to tell _me_ no. You're going to do exactly what I tell you to do. Like you always have."

Ryou thought he shuddered. He wanted to, anyway. But there weren't any signs that he did.

"I'll see you later. And you'll see me then, too." Noble D'Noir patted his cheek. A second later, Ryou knew that he was alone in the stone chamber once again.

He had more information, if that was what he wanted to call it. The archer was Theron. Noble D'Noir wanted him to do things that didn't seem all that bad. To spy on the zombies to some degree, likely for the purpose of destroying them.

Ryou thought he saw the whole scheme right now. Noble D'Noir found out through the blood slave – turned vampire – that he'd provided to Camula and Ruthven that the zombies intended to acquire the Sangenma, and used that to destroy the zombies themselves. Noble D'Noir would then be praised and honored above all else – especially above Ryou himself.

That wasn't at all a surprise. Turned vampires remained at the lowest rungs of vampire society. Once again he'd just be a tool for Noble D'Noir's advancement.

In other words, everything was more or less the way that it had always been. He remained a tool in the hands of others, useful only for what they wanted. Even having a bit of rank and being able to feed freely from the inhabitants of the two dozen or so settlements he could call his didn't give him anything like the full freedom that he wanted.

More footsteps sounded and this time, more than one set. Three this time, and one of those sets seemed much quieter than the others. A warrior of some kind? Probably the guard that Theron acquired, according to Noble D'Noir.

Ryou wondered if he'd be able to see or hear anything more. He knew Noble D'Noir could bend spells to some degree, not to mention as the first vampire to feed from him, D'Noir would always have a measure of control over him. He could have simply ordered Ryou's senses to be aware of him and no one else.

His stomach told him of one sense that existed regardless – the sense of raw hunger. At least he would soon feed – perhaps on more than one.

**To Be Continued**

**Notes:** I'm thinking that for the foreseeable future, Wednesday updates will involve Ryou's situation and Sunday updates will be what other people are doing.


	9. Chapter 9

**Series:** World of Fusion||**Title:** War of the Undead  
**Characters:** Theron (OC), O'Brien, Sienna (OC), Samejima, Noble D'Noir, OC||**Ship:** N/A  
**Chapters:** 9-50||**Chapter Words:** 3,150||**Total Words:** 27,622  
**Genre:** Drama, Supernatural||**Rated:** PG  
**Challenges:** Diversity Writing, GX: Fused World, L2, 2000-6000 wpc; One Character Boot Camp, Marufuji Ryou, #19, rebel; Include The Word, #47, multipy; Chapter Set Boot Camp, #24, 50 chaptrs; Advent 2015-2016, GX, bonus #1: roll for fic length: between 100,000-200,000 words; Christmas Advent 2017, New Year's Special, start a new fic and update it once a week; Epic Masterclass, YGO GX, #4, AU Space  
**Notes:** Same universe as **Raised To His Word** but featuring other characters. A little backstory will appear as well. Also, the character notes up top here will change depending on who is involved in each chapter.  
**Summary:** The first strike in war involves doing as much damage as you possibly can – such as taking one of your enemy's strongest warriors and using him to get the strongest weapons. Ryou never thought he'd enjoy being a vampire but this is a whole new level. Perhaps it's a good thing he has a teacher and some new friends to help him out.

* * *

Theron avoided being seen by the survivors of Sunsdown by the simple procedure of coming up to the cave system he'd claimed for his own use from a direction they'd not look at. His priest-servant would keep them from setting guards and if he'd kept on preaching the way Theron fully expected that he would, then the survivors would be too terrified and too furious to do much more than attempt to pick among the ruins.

They wouldn't be in any condition to stop his servants when they rose up from under the ground and fed on the survivors.

Assassin kept up with him as they walked. Assassin resembled a shadow more than anything else, as silent as a leaf dropping, and every movement a marvel of unparalleled restrained strength. Perfect to keep an eye on a vampire.

Getting back down to the prison cave didn't take long. By now the sun arched towards the western horizon, which meant the vampire's awakening wouldn't be that far away. Theron wanted Assassin in place before that happened.

Together they entered the rough-hewn room. No one had been here since he'd left and the vampire remained where he'd been put, still bound in the net, and still unconscious due to the spell.

Theron nudged him with one foot, smiling when there wasn't a response. This mission had taken him longer than he'd thought it might at first, and he still had more to do before unleashing his minions on the survivors. And after that – after that he could finally claim the Sangenma and present them to his lord.

He started to turn towards Assassin, lips parted to give his orders, when a tiny _pop_ sounded and a single teardrop of crystal appeared before him. Automatically he seized it, recognizing where it came from, and the moment his hand touched the crystal, a very familiar face shaped itself before him.

"Katashi."

Theron hadn't expected to receive a message back this soon. He'd hardly expected to receive one at all, save for a simple acknowledgment of what he'd reported. Perhaps that was all this was.

Though Katashi seldom sent those personally.

As soon as he uttered the name, the image spoke. "Theron. We have heard your message concerning the Guardian of the Sangenma and his Lordship is pleased that you may have accomplished such a fine goal for us. You are ordered to bring the Guardian as soon as possible – and if you can capture him, Camula's spawn as well."

Theron's lip curled at that. He had no plans to surrender this spawn any sooner than he had to. But he made no other outward sign of rejection.

"A warrior is being sent to inspect your situation. This warrior will return with the Guardian and the spawn once you've secured one or both of them. You'll recognize them by the Lord's insignia. We await your success."

The image faded, as did the crystal. It was a one-way message, perhaps a bit fancier than a written note, and nothing more. Theron glared at where the image had hung, then shook his head.

"They can have the Guardian, but this thing belongs to me," he growled to himself. "They said if I could – they don't need to know that I did."

He shook his head, then turned to Assassin. "This is the vampire – the bloodsucker." Again he nudged and the creature shifted, not quite waking up. Here it would be safe from the sun, even if it did open its eyes. He didn't expect that to happen. "I'm going to send someone to be food for it when I get the chance. See to it that the beast doesn't escape. The net will keep it confined. I also intend to acquire a few other pieces that will make sure all of its powers are negated."

Assassin tilted their head forward. Theron had no idea if Assassin even had a gender, let alone what it might be. He cared very little either. As long as Assassin could do the job, that alone mattered.

"I'll be back tonight." There were plenty of places that he could use to get a meal for the creature, but he'd already made up his mind on that one. What better place than one already primed to hate and fear vampires?

He slipped out, considering how long it would take him to cross the mountains at his best speed, to get to the magician who made such clever items that could restrain even a vampire.

Though this one wasn't as powerful as the old vampires. So young, so fresh, he still saw things as humans did more than he didn't. Or so Theron believed; he'd not paid enough attention to the creature before binding him.

Perhaps he'd find out in the future. He quite looked forward to finding out. But after the war. After he'd taken the Sangenma and after there weren't any other vampires in all of the world.

* * *

O'Brien didn't move a lot. He thought instead, his attention shifting as best outside that he could manage. That wasn't much. The wall around the fountain stood too tall even for him to try to climb and the only way in or out would be to go through the gates.

The zombies might not be able to see this place, but he knew they were out there, and he didn't doubt for a moment that if anyone stepped beyond the protective wards, then the undead would be on them in a heartbeat.

So the question remained on how they could get out of there safely so that they could either warn the inhabitants of what had been Sunsdown or return the old man to his temple so that he could protect those demonic cards.

O'Brien didn't want to abandon the people of Sunsdown. Sure, they were terrified and had driven him out because he wanted to do something against the priest's wishes, but they were still people. They didn't realize they were being misled. From what he'd heard while he lived there, the place had been very different once upon a time, welcoming travelers and those who worked magic and those who weren't human alike.

They'd also been a loyal servant to the lead vampire of the area. He couldn't be certain if that were this Marufuji Ryou or not. Perhaps he'd have to talk to him to find that out. But they hadn't been so repulsed by anything or anyone that wasn't "normal" once upon a time.

He glanced to the others. Samejima sat there, his head tilted upward to enjoy the final rays of the sun, while Sienna and Izumi spoke quietly to one another. Fairy Dragon remained on Sienna's lap, and the harsh expression on O'Brien's face softened at the sight for a few seconds.

Fairy Dragon was forever too adorable. There weren't many creatures that he used that word for, but she qualified. She'd spied on the village totally unseen, then started fishing, which kept her there once he left the village. If she hadn't done that, if he hadn't come that way, O'Brien couldn't be at all sure where he'd be right now, or if he'd even be alive at the moment.

Then another thought flickered into being. He moved closer to the three. "Sienna," he said thoughtfully. "You can conjure dragons from your jar, you've said?" His gaze rested on that jar next to her, which she kept close enough to touch at all times.

"Yes. Why do you ask?"

"Because that could be the answer. How big are the dragons?"

Sienna tilted her head back. "Almost any size. It depends on how much water I want to use. The greater the dragon, the less often I can call them." She rested her hand on Fairy Dragon. "I can call her almost all the time. She doesn't require much water. But larger dragons require a great deal more."

O'Brien nodded. "If you could call a big dragon – or several dragons – then that could get Teacher Samejima to his Dojo, while I can go back to Sunsdown and tell them about the zombies." He knew that was a risk; they weren't likely to believe him. But he had to do something, before the creatures emerged and devoured all of them.

Or worse, didn't devour _all_ of them.

Izumi's eyes brightened at that. "That could work." Her expression fell a breath later. "But what if they attack you again?"

He paced just a few steps this way and that, searching for an answer. Perhaps surprisingly, he found one.

"I have a friend that they would believe. I don't think even now they're going to turn down the services of an earth mage." Everyone knew that earth mages were harmless and wise. Of course, that wasn't exactly true but if it kept the people quiet enough so they would listen to Jim instead of that false priest, that would be enough for him.

"Where is this friend?" Sienna wanted to know. "We'd have to go find him, wouldn't we?"

"He's not that far away. At least not for a dragon. Do you know where Summersdawn is?" He turned to the eastern skies. "It's that way. I haven't been there in a while." He had to hope that Jim would still be there. Some earth mages put down roots as soon as they could. Some wandered the world for years before they decided to settle down. So far Jim had been wandering.

Sienna tapped a finger on her jar in thought. "I know an earth dragon," she said at last. "He can find your friend and bring him here. Then you can go on to the village and we can hope that there are people left there to save."

It wasn't the best that O'Brien could come up with but there wasn't much else that they could do. Options were too limited right now.

"All right." O'Brien began to turn, then stopped. "I should write a note."

Sienna shook her head. "Tell the dragon what you want your friend to know. They will pass it on." She rested her hand on her jar, then tilted it, whispering words far too low for him to hear anything. O'Brien waited, more than a little fascinated as water spilled out from the jar and pooled in front of her. She continued to chant, her voice never rising above a whisper, until a snout poked itself out of the water, and then a pair of scaled shoulders, a long, slender body, and four powerful legs.

The earth dragon shook off the water and rested their head for a moment on Sienna's lap. She breathed in deeply, hand coming to rest on the dragon's head.

"Thank you for coming," she murmured at last. "I wouldn't have called, but we have a great need."

O'Brien knew he shouldn't have been that surprised when the dragon spoke. He'd already heard Fairy Dragon, after all. But when the great dragon parted his snout and clear words emerged, it still startled him.

"You can call me whenever you like. I come, as always, Sienna. What do you need me for?"

"There is an earth mage that we need to speak with. We need him brought back here as soon as possible. This involves zombies and vampires – a war between the undead."

O'Brien hadn't ever seen a dragon wrinkle a nose like that. "I can't say I support either one," the dragon said, shifting. The more that it moved, the more O'Brien could see that the scales weren't earth-brown as he'd thought, but glimmered in dark jewel tones. The five claws on each paw were sharper than winter winds and the teeth looked fit to tear apart the mightiest of beasts to eat.

"Neither do I, but the vampires rule this territory by treaty, and the zombies are attempting to take it, and to locate the Sangenma demons," Sienna told him. "We're not in alliance with either of them, but no one should hold those creatures."

The dragon turned slowly to take in each of the others, gaze resting on Samejima. "Ah. The Guardian." He turned his attention on O'Brien. "And you possess a soul of fire."

He'd heard that before. It had never meant anything to him. It still didn't, even coming from the tongue of a dragon.

But now the dragon readied himself with a shake of his scales. "I'll take your message. Speak it, fire-child."

O'Brien mentally shook himself. "Please inform Jim that Austin O'Brien needs his help at what used to be Sunsdown. It's been burned to the ground and zombies will emerge to take the survivors at any moment. I'll explain more when he gets here." He stopped for a second. One more point. "And ask him how Karen is doing."

The dragon nodded, a hint of amusement flickering in his onyx black eyes. "Very wise, I see. Very well." He backed up to the clearest point of the courtyard and large wings unsnapped from his back. He crouched down on his haunches, then leaped up into the air, sweeping out of sight in a matter of moments. O'Brien watched until he could see nothing else – only a few moments. The dragon flew fast indeed.

When he looked over to Sienna, she leaned against Izumi, breathing quite softly, her eyes closed.

"I'll summon another later," she said without opening her eyes. "I am a water mage – calling a creature of earth took more energy than I thought it would. Or perhaps our new friend can take Teacher Samejima to his Dojo once he's brought your friend here."

Samejima didn't look as if he objected to that. His attention seemed to drift far more often to the gates and to the side of the wall towards Sunsdown – where his vampire student lay somewhere, captive for reasons they weren't entirely certain of.

O'Brien hadn't ever been that close to anyone except perhaps his own parents. He wondered what it might be like to have someone that he'd be so worried about.

The faint image of Arethusa appeared in the back of his mind and he admired her for only a few seconds before he returned to trying to make what plans that he could.

* * *

Noble D'Noir stood in a fold of the mountains, watching the tiny specks of people down below. They'd been his people not all that long ago – barely a breath of time, not even a solid five years.

No. They were still his people. No matter what Camula and Ruthven said, he would always rule this territory. He would, sooner or later, rule every territory – everything that the vampires claimed would be his, and far more as well.

But for now, he would have to wait. He'd just touched on the very edges of his plans and he had to wait to see how they all unfolded.

At least he could have fun with Marufuji. He'd thoroughly enjoyed the winter months he'd spent training and taming the fierce duelist. He would quite gladly have turned him himself if that had meshed with his plans. He'd presumed almost from the first moment of tasting the boy's blood that he would be one of them eventually.

His gaze shifted again, this time following a tiny figure as it moved towards the mountains. Oh, Theron. So convinced that everything he did was all of his own idea and for the glory of the zombies.

As if the zombies had any idea of what glory actually was, or could do anything at all that wasn't moan mindlessly and chew whatever meat was thrown their way. Noble D'Noir's lip curled at the very thought of the mindless creatures. Those things needed a necromancer to even exist properly in the first place. And _they_ thought that they could stand in defiance of the great vampires?

As if such a thing could ever be. Zombies were nothing but tools. They always had been, especially for vampires. Legend had it that the very first zombies had been raised by a vampire necromancer. Even Noble D'Noir didn't know if that were true, but he believed in that rumor more than any other.

Eventually Theron would know who he truly served. But for now that didn't suit Noble D'Noir's plans. He watched as the last of the sun dipped below the horizon and the first streaks of shadows reached across the lands. The time of the vampire came around once more.

Light as a breeze, he leaped downward and landed, strolling towards the ruined village and those who huddled in the ruins.

* * *

A scant week or two earlier, Sunsdown had been a thriving village of perhaps close to two hundred and fifty people. A few people vanished here and there, but they lived not too far from the mountains and a river known to be furious at times. As long as those who vanished had a reason to do so – having been hunting or fishing or walking in places they had no business being – then few would think of it as anything to worry about.

Of course, a few years earlier, those who vanished did so because of the vampires. There weren't many of those and sometimes they even returned, weaker and paler, but they survived and with care, returned to full strength.

The butcher was one of those. At the age of fifteen, she'd been taken by a vampire, a lovely creature who'd smiled so sweetly at her, and she didn't remember much after that. She'd been away from her village for nearly three months, and awoke in her bed as if she'd never left it.

Now twenty years later, she watched over her daughter sternly, not wanting to lose her.

She didn't fear losing her daughter to vampires. They did what they had to do, as did others. She'd awoken with three pouches of well-cut gems tucked under her pillow – payment for her services, she knew. If her daughter vanished, the same thing could happen again.

But she did not let her daughter listen tot the priest or wander in the ruins. The words O'Brien said rang in her thoughts and she determined that when the chance arose, she and her daughter – the daughter she'd given birth to at the age of sixteen, six months after her return from dwelling with the vampires – she intended to leave this place for better surroundings.

As the sun set, the two began to make plans, keeping as far from the false priest as they could, deciding on where to go and what to do once they got there.

But they'd not even taken a step beyond the ruins when a cry rose from the others, a cry of fear, and the stench of zombies that filled the air grew even thicker. Arms thrust themselves up from underground, and once again what had been Sunsdown was under attack.

* * *

**To Be Continued**

**Notes:** So, Jim's joining the fun. And he's not the only one.


	10. Chapter 10

**Series:** World of Fusion||**Title:** War of the Undead  
**Characters:** Ryou, Camula, Ruthven (OC)||**Ship:** N/A  
**Chapters:** 10-50||**Chapter Words:** 3,102||**Total Words:** 30,724  
**Genre:** Drama, Supernatural||**Rated:** PG  
**Challenges:** Diversity Writing, GX: Fused World, L2, 2000-6000 wpc; One Character Boot Camp, Marufuji Ryou, #19, rebel; Include The Word, #47, multipy; Chapter Set Boot Camp, #24, 50 chaptrs; Advent 2015-2016, GX, bonus #1: roll for fic length: between 100,000-200,000 words; Christmas Advent 2017, New Year's Special, start a new fic and update it once a week; Epic Masterclass, YGO GX, #4, AU Space  
**Notes:** Same universe as **Raised To His Word** but featuring other characters. A little backstory will appear as well. Also, the character notes up top here will change depending on who is involved in each chapter.  
**Summary:** The first strike in war involves doing as much damage as you possibly can – such as taking one of your enemy's strongest warriors and using him to get the strongest weapons. Ryou never thought he'd enjoy being a vampire but this is a whole new level. Perhaps it's a good thing he has a teacher and some new friends to help him out.

* * *

The sun still hadn't set yet. Ryou wondered vaguely if Theron or Noble D'Noir had somehow made it set faster just so he couldn't get up and do anything. Not that the net would have allowed him to do things. But at least he'd be awake and aware of more than the rock and damp.

Once again his mind slid back to the past, to when he'd first been in Camula and Ruthven's castle, seated on his bed instead of in this place, surrounded by warmth instead of in the depths of the earth.

Underneath his fingers the mattress remained softer than anything he ever recalled encountering. Vampires didn't stint for their blood slaves, it seemed. At least Camula and Ruthven didn't.

He had no idea of how long he waited. Then, without any sort of warning, he rose to his feet, an internal tugging calling him. He hated every step that he took towards their bedroom, but steeled himself regardless. He would not forget the goal he'd set for himself – he would survive and get out of this, either as a turned vampire or a gladiator. He would prefer the latter if he had his options, but regardless, that lay in the future.

On the other side of the doorway he saw a room that made his look little better than the cell he'd lived in during his time with Noble D'Noir. Elegant tapestries that gleamed with tiny gemstones, thick rugs that drank in the sound of footsteps and didn't give it back, and every stick of furniture crafted from rare and well-carved stone.

There were two chairs set before a flame that he later learned had been enchanted not to burn any flesh, each chair upholstered in deep grays and pale red. Between the two chairs there rested a small footstool, this one covered with a cushion in deep blue that matched his own coloring.

In those chairs sat Camula and Ruthven. Ryou supposed they were attractive enough. Camula's hair glowed with deep green highlights, her long-nailed hands resting on Ruthven's arm, a hint of hunger in her expression. Ruthven was a redhead, with warm dark brown eyes, which also hungered as Ryou came over to the two of them.

With no open gesture, Ryou still knelt on the footstool between them. It brought him to a position where either of them could bite into his neck if they leaned over. He tried not to flinch – mostly successfully – as Camula's other hand came to rest on his shoulder.

"So Noble D'Noir has gifted us with a _lovely_ slave," Camula purred out the words, fingers caressing against the side of Ryou's neck. "And he does look so very strong."

"I agree, my dear." Ruthven gave him a very careful look, one that Ryou could only catch if he strained. "He might be useful to us in other ways as well. You know how Noble D'Noir has – ambition."

Camula laughed, the jagged edges of it grating against Ryou's ears. "That he does. But let's not turn down this prize because of that."

"I never suggested otherwise." Ruthven's hand now rested on the other side of Ryou's neck. "Ladies first?"

Camula leaned closer and a flash of silvery pain coursed through Ryou as her fangs pierced his neck. She'd chosen the area with care, tilting his head to the side, and drank. Ryou wasn't certain if he could've moved if he wanted to right now. He just knelt there, shuddering.

Ruthven's hands supported him on the other side, but he didn't bite in just yet. Ryou didn't protest that. Instead, he let himself relax. He didn't like being a blood slave but there wasn't any way to get out of this right now. Survive. That was what he needed to do – that was _all_ he could do. Survive to what would happen afterward, whatever that might be.

Camula didn't take as much as Ryou feared. When she was finished, Ryou _knew_ he couldn't have gotten up. Every muscle in his body was little more than warm jelly and his eyes couldn't or wouldn't open more than the smallest bit. He'd never felt like this with Noble D'Noir at all.

Then Ruthven tilted his head the other way and once again there was that pinch of pain and the sensation of lips against his neck. He'd heard horror stories before – Fubuki rather loved telling them on long dark nights – that spoke of the nightmare of being a vampire's blood slave. His experiences with Noble D'Noir told him that while the stories weren't completely accurate, he could see where they came from.

But here, between Ruthven and Camula, Ryou could see where the _other_ stories about vampires came from – that their touch could send one's head spinning, that blood slaves ended up fanatically devoted to them, and so much more.

When his head finally cleared he wasn't between them anymore. He lay on the bed in that small room, still very disinclined to move, but with hunger pangs clawing at his stomach. It had been so long since he'd had a truly good meal.

A strong aroma teased at his nose and he tried to sit up, wondering if he'd truly smelled what he thought he did. He rubbed at his eyes, trying to clear his vision, and blinked at the sight of a tray next to the bed. It contained foods that he didn't even recognize aside from what they were – he could recognize beef, but not the recipe used to make this. It looked and smelled far better than anything he'd ever encountered before. Vegetables rested on one side of the tray as well, their aromas as enticing as the meat itself.

Once it sank into his mind that there was food there and it was for him, he didn't wait another moment. He ate as quickly as he could, his movements gaining more speed the more that he ate. His neck still hurt where he'd been bitten, but the ache eased with the passing of time, and once he finished his meal, he barely even noticed it.

The meal also came with a glass of liquid – not wine, but something light and a bit fizzy that he'd never tasted before. Most of what he'd tasted before was water or homemade drinks, weak wine and beer and tea. He'd always preferred tea, and he wondered if he would be able to ask for that. If they allowed him to speak.

He decided to find out. Not right now; now that he'd finished eating, his eyes began to close again and he settled back down on the bed. He didn't even have time to form a coherent thought before sleep took him.

That was his life for what he later learned was nearly three months. He would be called in every now and then to kneel between Camula and Ruthven and they both fed on him. Sometimes they spoke and most of what they said he had no opinion about either way. The few things he did care about, they never asked what he might think. They treated him well in the sense of being housed and fed and kept clean, but aside from that, they acted as if he were no more intelligent than the footstool he knelt on.

All of that changed one night. Called to them, he settled between them as always, almost bored by now. It would always be the same – they fed and he later woke up in his room to a fine meal and then went to sleep.

"What is it that these people _want_?" She snapped the words out, not even seeming to have recognized that Ryou knelt there.

Ruthven wasn't much different as he lay back in his chair, hands folded over his chest, staring up the ceiling, a frown twisting his aristocratic lips.

"They claim they wish to see a magnificent duelist," he said, musing. "But no one that we've arranged seems to be good enough for them."

The mention of dueling caught at Ryou's attention. He dragged his awareness up to listen more.

"I certainly won't duel for their pleasure," Camula hissed the words out, her claws sharpening. "But if we can't provide them with what they want-" Her voice trailed off and she shook her head before she started to lean in on Ryou.

Ryou moved. Just a little, enough so she stopped and frowned at him. He fought to force the words out.

"I can duel," he said, marveling at how rough his voice sounded. Really, how long _had_ it been since he'd spoken? "I was the best duelist in my home town."

Camula's lips parted at his first words, but she pressed them together again at his next. She glanced towards Ruthven, who leaned forward, a glimmer of curiosity in his eyes.

"What else have you done in relation to dueling?" The vampire monarch asked. "Tell us everything."

Ryou didn't even need the hint of command in his voice to find the words to speak of dueling. He told them of how he'd taught himself the basics before his seventh birthday and of how he'd spent three years at the Cyber Dojo, learning under Master Samejima. And how he'd won the friendship of not just the Cyber Dragon deck but Cyber End Dragon as well.

When he finally stopped speaking. Camula summoned a servant. Never in all the time he'd been here had she done that when he stood ready to be fed from. Now she looked at him and he knew she wasn't just seeing a talking piece of meat.

"We will delay tonight's feeding," Camula told him. "We'll have a demonstration of your dueling skills and if you show the talent you claim that you have, then we will prepare you to serve us in a different way."

Ryou did not raise a word of disagreement. He would far rather duel than anything else.

A few whispered words to the servant had them scurrying out and returning shortly, with something held in their hands. The moment Ryou laid his eyes on it, he tried to rise up, hands itching to hold his deck once again. Camula held it for a few moments, however, staring down before she turned her attention to Ruthven.

"The spirits here are very strong," she told him. "Even after being apart from him for all this time." She turned to Ryou. "How long has it been since you dueled?"

Ryou considered for a few moments. "Since before Noble D'Noir took me," he finally said. "I dueled my brother earlier that day."

He refused to let his thoughts travel to Shou. Shou didn't need to get involved in this at all.

The two vampires murmured, too low for him to understand what they said, then Camula offered the deck to him. "Come along," she ordered once he took it. 'I've arranged for you to duel."

Ryou made it to his feet in a heartbeat. His blood raced hotter and faster than it had in far too long as he followed the two out to a dueling arena. He wasn't surprised to see that the moon rode high in the sky, three-quarters full, casting silver streaks all over the land.

On the far side of the arena there stood a burly man, blond and scarred in many places, wearing not much more than a loincloth, a heavy bladed dagger hanging from his belt, boots, and a duel disk on his arm. The moment Ryou stepped out there, the warrior took a look at him and released a deep laugh.

"This is my opponent? I'm missing a good dinner and good company for _this_?"

Camula stood beside Ryou, a smile hovering over her lips. "IF the duel isn't to your liking, then we'll compensate you fully afterward."

"You bet you will," the warrior grumped before staring at Ryou again. "Does this blood slave even know how to duel?"

Ryou glanced to the side as someone fastened a duel disk onto his arm. Then he set his deck into the disk and took a step forward, head held high, pride exploding in his veins as it hadn't in so very long.

"I am Kaiser Marufuji Ryou, trained at the Cyber Dojo, heir to the Cyber Style. And it's _my turn_." With nothing more than that, he shuffled his deck and drew his cards, hearing their whispers of glee at being able to fight by his side once again.

Camula and Ruthven stepped to the side to watch. Ryou paid no attention to them, but considered only two things – the cards in his hand and deck and his opponent across the way. It took him only a few moments to get himself back into the way of dueling – all of his old strategies dusted themselves off in his head, and a few thoughts for new ones stirred.

He would have to revise his deck eventually, he knew. He'd been out of the game for perhaps half a year, and much could change in that time.

It wasn't the best hand. He could – no, not right now, that wouldn't be the best idea. He glanced over at his opponent, wondering what strategy the other would use. Likely a crude one, given the way he seemed very unimpressed with everything but himself.

Very well. Bait him out some.

"I summon Proto Cyber Dragon!" Ryou declared, calling the first of the allies he hadn't seen in far too long. Then he set one card before ending his turn.

His opponent let loose a mocking laugh. "You call that a turn? I could get rid of your baby monster like this!" He snapped his fingers, sneering, then drew his card. "Let me show you how a real duelist does things – a real warrior. Warriors go right for blood!"

Three cards slammed onto the duel disk. "I activate Fireball, Penalty of Burning at the Stake, and Goblin Thief! Fireball inflicts five hundred points of damage!" True to the name, a sphere of flame slammed right into Ryou.

It tickled a little. He didn't even have to brace himself. He'd seen some people scream and even be singed by attacks like this. But he'd never done so himself.

"Penalty of Burning at The Stake inflicts _six hundred_!"

Another blast of flame. This one didn't do any more damage to him than the first one did. The effect on his life points remained. The pain that the other duelist clearly expected to see didn't.

"And Goblin Thief gives you five hundred more damage, while giving five hundred points to me!"

The image of the Goblin Thief appeared, sliding around Ryou. A tiny tickle that he presumed was his life points being taken brushed by his neck, then the thief slid back across the field to touch the other, raising his life points. Ryou let one eyebrow quirk upward.

"Is that all?" He'd really rather get this finished. He enjoyed a good duel but so far, this duelist wasn't worth the effort.

What the other said wasn't words that most people would've used in front of a pair of monarchs. Ryou waited until he calmed down and pulled out another spell card.

"This is Foolish Burial! I can send one Normal Monster from my deck to the graveyard and I choose to send Evil Knight Dragon!" There was a vague image of the dark dragon roaring before it vanished into the graveyard. "And now, using Birthright, I Special Summon Evil Knight Dragon to the field!"

Now the dragon appeared in full and fierce detail, deadly sharp claws pointed towards Ryou and Proto Cyber Dragon. His opponent laughed harder and even more cruelly. "Now, let me teach you about _battle_! Nightmare Shadow Sonic!"

Black energy coiled at the dragon's mouth and blasted forward, wrapping around Proto Cyber Dragon and destroying the creature at once. Ryou bit his lip, but said nothing more. His life points had dropped down to a mere thousand hundred and fifty, easily wiped away.

If he allowed it. He would not.

"I activate my trap! Call of the Living Dead! I can target one monster in my graveyard and Special Summon it. Come back to me, Proto Cyber Dragon!"

Once again the silver-scaled dragon roared up before him, glaring intently at Evil Knight Dragon. His opponent snorted.

"I don't see what the point of that was. I'll just destroy it again next turn. You can't get rid of my dragon with it."

Ryou didn't design to answer. His opponent set one card face-down – now he'd used up every card in his hand – and waited with that eternal sneer to see what Ryou would do next.

He was aware of Camula and Ruthven and neither of them looked especially pleased at the moment. They would learn differently. Ryou drew his card and the corner of his mouth twitched. _Now I have to make a decision._

One card could end the duel right now. The other could let it go a little farther.

"And now, I activate _my_ trap card! Destruction Ring! Your monster's destroyed and you take a thousand points of damage!"

As Proto Cyber Dragon exploded once again, Ryou made up his mind. His opponent howled with laughter.

"You can't win. You can't possibly summon anything that's enough to defeat my Evil Knight Dragon on this turn and you've only got a hundred and fifty life points left. This duel is _mine_."

Ryou shook his head. "I'm afraid not."

"Huh?" The other stared at him. "What could you do? What could you _possibly_ do?"

"This." Ryou turned three of the five cards in his hand over. "I fuse all three of my Cyber Dragons to summon Cyber End Dragon – and I do this with _Power Bond_!"

For the first time in far, far too long, Cyber End Dragon rose up beside him. Ryou rested one hand on the closest neck and smiled to see his old friend bending towards him.

"Let's finish this, shall we?" Ryou murmured. His opponent stared, still shaking his head.

"It might have four thousand attack points, but that's still not enough to defeat my dragon and me! I'll have life points left!"

Ryou smiled. "No, you won't. Because I summoned it with Power Bond, Cyber End Dragon's attack points are eight thousand." He gave his opponent a very disappointed look. "Eternal Evolution Burst!"

Oh, how Ryou loved to duel. And it had been far too long since he had.

And as the memory of that first duel in so long faded away, the sun set, and Ryou opened his eyes.

* * *

**To Be Continued**

**Notes:** That duel appeared out of nowhere. Wasn't planning on it. It just showed up.


	11. Chapter 11

**Series:** World of Fusion||**Title:** War of the Undead  
**Characters:** Jim Cook, Ayaka (OC), Nou (OC), Theron (OC), Ryou||**Ship:** N/A  
**Chapters:** 11-50||**Chapter Words:** 3,033||**Total Words:** 33,757  
**Genre:** Drama, Supernatural||**Rated:** PG  
**Challenges:** Diversity Writing, GX: Fused World, L2, 2000-6000 wpc; One Character Boot Camp, Marufuji Ryou, #19, rebel; Include The Word, #47, multipy; Chapter Set Boot Camp, #24, 50 chaptrs; Advent 2015-2016, GX, bonus #1: roll for fic length: between 100,000-200,000 words; Christmas Advent 2017, New Year's Special, start a new fic and update it once a week; Epic Masterclass, YGO GX, #4, AU Space  
**Notes:** Same universe as **Raised To His Word** but featuring other characters. A little backstory will appear as well. Also, the character notes up top here will change depending on who is involved in each chapter.  
**Summary:** The first strike in war involves doing as much damage as you possibly can – such as taking one of your enemy's strongest warriors and using him to get the strongest weapons. Ryou never thought he'd enjoy being a vampire but this is a whole new level. Perhaps it's a good thing he has a teacher and some new friends to help him out.

* * *

Jim examined the fields thoughtfully, head tilted to the side, trying to figure out what the problem here was. He could feel there was something, but the plants weren't telling him about it, and that worried him. He knelt down and brushed the fingers of one hand against the nearest set of leaves. The part of him that had always spoken to the earth and the plants reached downward, prodding ever so gently.

He breathed in carefully, his awareness caressing through each part of the leaf, until finally he smiled. There it was.

Deep within his core there lay rooted a sphere of green energy, nourished and recharged by constant contact with the earth itself. Now Jim pulled power from there, just enough to work through the illness and send it away.

Now when he looked at the spreading fields, the faint web of taint over it faded away, replaced by healthy green and hints of gold. Jim breathed in silently before he levered himself to his feet and turned to the farmer who'd spent the whole time watching him, worry all through her expression.

"That should do it," he assured her. "The taint's all taken care of. I can leave some help in case someone else tries any games if you want."

"Please," she said, muscled arms crossed over her chest. "We're going to need all the help we can get if we want this ready to harvest when it's time."

Jim nodded, already considering what his options were to get them a decent guardian for the fields. He was right in the middle of hunting for a particular twisted root when the sound of great wings beating split the air.

"Dragon!" The cry came from one of the farmer's farmhands, pointing upwards. "It's a dragon!"

Jim glanced up; he'd never seen a dragon before. He'd heard of them – who hadn't – and seen many pictures in old books, modern books, and cards, but never seen one face to face. Perhaps this one was just passing through.

Only that didn't seem to be the case as the creature circled over the farm and started to approach. Jim's eye narrowed and he stepped forward, pointing to a long meadow.

"If you're landing, do it there! I just got those fields taken care of!"

The dragon paused, leaning forward for a few seconds before circling once more and this time angling to land on the fallow meadow. Jim stalked over there, aware that Karen followed him a few seconds later.

"You are Jim Crocodile Cook?" The dragon asked, voice rumbling deep and rich. Jim stood there, giving the great creature a careful look.

"Who's asking?"

"I bring a message from Austin O'Brien. He needs your help at Sunsdown. Or what used to be Sunsdown, as the place has been burned to the ground. War brews between the zombies and the vampires. Those who survived the fire will become prey for the zombies likely this very night." The dragon tilted a jewel-bright head. "And he also asks after the health of Karen – whom I presume is that lovely creature behind you."

Jim cast a glance to Karen, who stared at the dragon for a few heartbeats before she made a noise that he recognized as approval. Then he turned back to the dragon.

"Let him know I'll be there as fast as I can be. Probably another hour or so." He hesitated for a second. "Just where is he?" O'Brien wouldn't be foolish enough to be right in the middle of a zombie attack – not if he were asking for Jim's help first.

"There is a sacred fountain a distance from the ruins of the village," the dragon reported. "He's there, safe. The fountain is warded well enough that no undead can find it without being shown."

Jim nodded. "All right." He'd almost finished his work here. He just needed to set up the guardian and then he could get to this. Undead made his skin crawl, zombies or vampires. He wouldn't go anywhere near that place unless he had to – which it seemed that he did.

The farmer inched closer, eyes round in wonder as she gazed upon the dragon. "Is there anything you need, sir dragon? Hungry? I've got an old steer that probably won't survive to the end of next winter."

The dragon tendered a thankful gaze. "If you wouldn't mind. I haven't had the chance to eat tonight and I flew rather fast to get here."

While the farmer and dragon settled dinner, Jim located the root that he needed with Karen's help, and a few whispered spells set the creature crafted from it wandering the fields. It would do so day and night and report any anomalies to the farmer. That would keep whatever initially inflicted the blight on the fields from doing so again.

Jim spied the dragon heading away, the offered steer held in a tight grip, and decided he'd done enough here. If O'Brien needed his help that badly then he'd be a fool not to hurry. So he flittered through his deck until he found what he wanted.

"Fossil Machine Skull Buggy!" Jim pulled the card out, another wisp of that bright green energy flowing from him and into the card. His favorite means of transportation that wasn't his own two feet leaped into existence, ready for him.

"You watch out for those undead," the farmer warned him, coming up. "And here you go." She thrust a bag towards him, from which there exuded some of the best smells he'd encountered since his last trip through a civilized town. "That should keep you fed for a while, you and your friend there."

Jim rested one hand on Karen's head for a second as she murmured thanks. The farmer would hear only a crocodile's growl, but Jim knew every noise that Karen could or would make. "Thanks, ma'am," he said. "If you need help, just have that little guy come find me. He can do it almost as quick as a dragon can fly."

He'd said that many times before. Now he wondered just how fast a dragon _could_ fly. Maybe he'd find out one of these days, if dragons were involved in this war as well.

"It's a deal." The farmer nodded, stepping away as Jim oriented himself and then zoomed out of sight, aiming for what had been Sunsdown.

* * *

The zombies were hungry. Zombies were _always_ hungry. They moaned and shuffled among the screaming, fleeing survivors, grabbing onto the ones who were too slow or too confused to get out of the way, and the carnage was unbridled.

The butcher gripped one of the knives that she'd saved from her store. She'd pulled herself and her daughter into a small section of ruins, hoping that this would mean they would be a little protected here.

Her daughter didn't cower behind her, but stood next to her, arms folded over her chest, staring at the lumbering creatures, her expression unreadable. The butcher kept watch, but whenever zombies drew too close to her, they glanced around, then wandered off again.

_They did the same thing last night._ She'd known the zombies wandered throughout the burning village, eating some of the villagers and some of the others rising up to join them if they died of their wounds. But every time they drew too close to her, the zombies diverted to someone else.

"Mother," her daughter said quietly, "I think we can still leave. They're not paying attention to us."

The butcher tensed. "What about everyone else?" These were her people; her friends. She'd known them all of her life. Sure, a few of them spread rumors about the time that she'd been gone, and a few more had things to say once she'd discovered she carried an unknown person's child – but that wasn't unknown when it came to those who'd been taken by vampires and returned.

She knew very well what her child could be. But never had Nou shown so much as a taste for rare meat, let alone blood. She was strong, but a butcher's daughter, training to be a butcher herself, would always be strong. She'd never shown a taste for the night or an urge to wander away to find her father.

Nou knew as well. Ayaka hadn't kept it from her since Nou was thirteen years old. Before that she'd merely said that Nou's father wasn't there and they'd only known one another a short time. After Nou turned thirteen, Ayaka told her the full truth.

And now Ayaka could not help but wish that Nou did show some vampire traits – the strength at least. She'd seen the vampire who'd come down from above to fight for them the night before. He'd been amazingly strong, far beyond any human, and laid out zombies who did not rise again when he finished with them.

But now Nou snorted, dismissing all of those who'd lived with them for so long with a wave of one hand. "Do you think they'd notice? Or care? You've heard what that "priest" said about me." Her eyes darkened. "Or did you?"

Ayaka pressed her lips together. She'd heard very well what he said. He'd run everyone else out of town who had even the faintest trace of magic in them and if it weren't for the village needing Ayaka's skills, she would have already been gone. The "priest" insisted things about Nou – that she was unholy, twisted, a child of a demon – that made Ayaka want to try out her butcher knife on _him_.

And now he wanted them to stay here and Ayaka wasn't so convinced that he didn't want what was going on to keep going on.

"We're going to the manor house," she decided at once. She didn't know if that was where she'd been. Every memory of those three months had been as neatly clipped from her mind as if it hadn't ever happened. But she knew very well that was where the local vampire in charge lived.

Nou nodded, a hint of excitement flickering over her features. She held a knife of her own, one she'd bought with her own money from a traveling weapons-maker. This wasn't like the business-like knives her mother used to chop meat, but a blade twice as long as her hand, as sharp as the edge of the wind after months of careful tending, and with a handle made of horn. Ayaka wasn't sure which animal's horn, but the knife itself had been quite expensive. Now it seemed worth it, to aid in their protection.

Together they started out, watching one another's backs, and keeping an eye out for any trouble. They'd just reached the edge of the screaming nightmare that Sunsdown had become when a voice shattered through the night.

"These have been sent from above! They will not harm you! Allow yourself to become one of them! We will avenge our home from the scourge of the vampires!"

The priest stood on a little ridge, waving his talisman and ranting at the top of his lungs. No one seemed to be paying that much attention to him. Then, without warning, someone else stood next to him, and the priest at once turned and bowed down.

Neither Ayaka nor Nou could hear what was said between the two. Ayaka thought the newcomer looked vaguely familiar, perhaps a face she'd seen in the marketplace, but no one she could name. She shook off her curiosity and moved onward, her goal the mountains and the manor that lay in their embrace.

* * *

"My lord," the priest murmured. "I've done all that you asked of me. Your horde will be replenished."

Theron chuckled softly. "So I see. And now I have another task for you. Come with me."

The priest raised his head and stared at his master. "My lord? There are still people who have not seen wisdom." He raised his talisman to point to the scattered folk. A few had fled the area entirely, managing to escape the carnage, but the majority of the original survivors did so no more. "And the hellspawn has escaped before I could deal with her."

"Don't stress yourself about it. As I said, I have another task." Theron wasn't going to allow protest. He gestured for the other to follow him, his steps turning toward the mountains.

His gaze flickered to the shapes he could only see vague images of through the darkness. He knew well that the butcher and her daughter escaped – the daughter who was half-vampire. He would see to them later. If it weren't so risky to have those of half blood being fed upon by a true vampire, he would've taken her to feed his plaything.

_But I'd rather not have two vampires to deal with. Once he'd properly under control, I can have her disposed of._

He dismissed them both from his plans for now. Already the sun set and that meant it was feeding time.

Getting back to the cave where he'd left the vampire didn't take that much time. He'd left it before sunset earlier and now they returned just as the last edges of sunlight faded from the sky. He would gather up the zombies later and get set on finding where the Guardian had gone to ground. The small knots of zombies he'd sent out earlier should have some information. The hard part there would be getting it out of them.

Even spirit zombies weren't always the smartest of creatures.

But now he led his false priest through the cave corridors, until they came to where Assassin sat on a rock and stared at the bloodsucker, who now sat cross-legged, still wrapped in the net that negated whatever powers he had. He still didn't look very threatening. Theron anticipated having more ways than one to depower the vampire without ruining him.

A bloodsucker could be useful, if properly tamed. Theron held quite a few ideas on how to do that.

The bloodsucker's eyes shifted to Theron when he and his priest entered. He made no move to get up and his expression didn't reveal a single thought that might have been behind those dark eyes. Theron smiled.

"I know that you're hungry," he cooed, "and I've brought you your meal."

The priest tilted his head in confusion. "My lord?"

Theron's hand came down roughly on the priest's shoulder. "This is what you can do to serve me best now. I have no further need of you." He gestured with his free hand to Assassin. "If you'd be so kind as to remove the net? I'm certain that he understands if he moves in a way I don't approve of, I'll ram a stake through his heart."

Again the vampire made no movement. The priest made more than enough for both of them, squirming and trying to escape, but with no success whatsoever. Theron drew him closer, gripping his arms and ignoring the way he was being battered at.

"Kill him," he ordered the bloodsucker. That shouldn't be a problem. They did it all the time.

But this one did not move as the net was unraveled from around him. "I don't kill when I feed," he said. His eyes moved to the false priest's throat. "I don't need to."

Theron smiled as sweetly as he could. "But you're going to this time. Because if you don't kill him, I'll see to it that he does indeed rise again – as a zombie."

His priest's protests grew even louder and Theron sighed. "Do finish him. He's getting very annoying and I have too much to do to worry about him."

With a quick movement he threw the priest toward the bloodsucker, who caught him unerringly and stared only for a moment before his fangs sank into the false priest's throat. There was a sound like a startled scream, but that faded away quickly. Even the sounds of the feeding were quiet after that, and the vampire seemed to enjoy his meal as he drank the false priest dry.

Far too soon – at least in Theron's opinion – he finished, dropping the body and wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. He eyed Theron quite distrustfully before he spoke.

"What do you want?"

"From you? Quite a few things. From every other vampire? For them not to exist at all?" Theron settled himself on another rock and gestured for the vampire to do the same, while Assassin took up a position in the door, barring an escape. "I'm certain as a turned vampire, you're quite aware of the concept of serving a master. _I_ am your master now."

The vampire didn't so much as twitch a hair. Theron mentally sniffed. He wanted so much more than that.

"I know that you're – theoretically – the vampire who rules this area. The youngest and weakest of all of the vampires. So, the one that will break and lead to the falling of all the others." He smiled slowly. "Spawn of Camula. Pledged to obey them - whether you want to or not."

Again the vampire said nothing. Only stared at him with thoughtful eyes, as relaxed as if he had nothing better to do with his time than sit here. Of course, even if he did, Theron wouldn't let him do anything else.

"Tell me where the Guardian is. Or even better, tell me where the Sangenma are. I want them and you're going to make sure that I get them."

One eyebrow tilted up just the faintest bit. "No, I'm not."

Theron smiled. This was exactly what he'd hoped to hear. "Oh, I think very differently. I think before I'm done with you, you're going to do everything that I want, and beg me for me tasks just so I'll be happy with you." He leaned forward. "I know what can hurt a vampire. And it won't be long before I know what can hurt _you_." He still didn't see the fear that he expected. But he had a handful more of words that would bring it. "Marufuji Ryou – brother of Marufuji Shou."

Ah. There it was. So sweet.

* * *

**To Be Continued**

**Notes:** I wonder who else might show up. I didn't start this story knowing about most of these people but here they are.


	12. Chapter 12

**Series:** World of Fusion||**Title:** War of the Undead  
**Characters:** Ryou, Theron (OC), Shou, OCs||**Ship:** N/A  
**Chapters:** 12-50||**Chapter Words:** 3,163||**Total Words:** 36,920  
**Genre:** Drama, Supernatural||**Rated:** PG  
**Challenges:** Diversity Writing, GX: Fused World, L2, 2000-6000 wpc; One Character Boot Camp, Marufuji Ryou, #19, rebel; Include The Word, #47, multipy; Chapter Set Boot Camp, #24, 50 chaptrs; Advent 2015-2016, GX, bonus #1: roll for fic length: between 100,000-200,000 words; Christmas Advent 2017, New Year's Special, start a new fic and update it once a week; Epic Masterclass, YGO GX, #4, AU Space  
**Notes:** Same universe as **Raised To His Word** but featuring other characters. A little backstory will appear as well. Also, the character notes up top here will change depending on who is involved in each chapter.  
**Summary:** The first strike in war involves doing as much damage as you possibly can – such as taking one of your enemy's strongest warriors and using him to get the strongest weapons. Ryou never thought he'd enjoy being a vampire but this is a whole new level. Perhaps it's a good thing he has a teacher and some new friends to help him out.

* * *

Ryou considered how fast Assassin might be – if it would be possible to wrap his fingers around Theron's neck and snap it. He didn't even want to take a single drop of the bastard's blood. He'd have none of that in his system.

Once upon a time he would've gone for it regardless. He could clearly imagine what it would be like to have that neck in his grip.

For a breath he shifted forward, ready to take him down. Theron leaned forward himself, that smug smirk twisting his lips.

"I know you want to kill me. But you're not going to. Even if you could survive the aftermath – which would be Assassin here killing _you_ \- I have people watching your mansion. Where your brother lives. He wouldn't last long enough for you to get there. Are you going to take the chance?"

Ryou did not need to breathe. He steadied himself regardless. "I can't tell you where the Sangenma are."

Theron's eyebrow tilted upward. "And why is that? You were his student, weren't you?"

He knew too much about Ryou, in Ryou's opinion. About Shou. About Samejima. But he must not have known enough. Ryou let his own smile play, soft and amused.

"Because I don't know. Teacher Samejima will only reveal that information to whichever of his students will be his successor. And that won't be me." He'd considered it, once upon a time. But with his status as a vampire and his loyalty – willing or not – to Camula and Ruthven, that wasn't possible. The head of the Cyber Dojo and the Guardian of the Sangenma needed to have no other commitments to divide their loyalties.

Theron slammed Ryou's head back against the rock wall. If Ryou had still been human, that could've given him a concussion. Theron, he realized, _wasn't_ human. At least not an ordinary one.

He also found himself quite glad that he didn't need to breathe. The way that Theron's fingers tightened around his throat meant he wouldn't have been drawing in air regardless.

"Then you're going to find him for me, if my zombies can't do it. You will find him. You will have him give me the Sangenma. After that -" Theron offered a cruel smile. "After that, when you're the only surviving vampire and I'm well on my way to being the ruler of my own realm – then I have other plans for you."

Ryou started to reach up one arm, straining to get Theron's grip away from his throat. Theron's other hand slammed against his, pinning it against the cave wall, and his eyes didn't move away from Ryou's for a single breath.

"I'm not asking you, bloodsucker. I'm telling you what's going to happen. You'll stay here tonight and tomorrow. I'll bring you another meal after tomorrow's sundown." Theron leaned forward, eyes bright with sadistic glee. "By then I'll know if my zombies have found anything and if they haven't, then it becomes your task."

He leaned forward, grinding Ryou's arm against stone and tightening his grip around Ryou's neck. "Do you _quite_ understand?"

Theron thought he could overpower Ryou. Ryou knew within a few seconds he would be able to escape the grip if he put in the effort. There were two things holding him back – the threat to Shou's life and Noble D'Noir's orders to obey Theron.

Theron wanted to think that he could tell Ryou to do anything and Ryou would do it. Very well. Let him think that for now.

He closed his eyes and dropped his head as best that he could. He wanted to convey that he would obey. Theron kept him where he was for a few moments, then stepped back, releasing him.

"Good boy. I knew you'd see things my way." Theron crossed his arms over his chest and stared down at him for a breath before glancing at Assassin. "Take the body out of here and dispose of it."

A tiny tilt of the head was all that Assassin did to agree to the request. A heartbeat later, both Assassin and the body were gone. Ryou's gaze followed up the corridor that led out. Something would happen so that he'd be able to get out that way himself. Sooner or later.

"I have other plans for you as well. I haven't had a bloodsucker I can play with – ever. I have _so_ many ideas and you're going to be where I practice them all." He licked his lips. "You have no idea how much I'm going to enjoy this."

"You'd be surprised." Ryou retorted. "You're not the first person to say something like that."

"I'm not as surprised as you think. Why wouldn't someone want to crush the will of someone who thinks they can't be defeated and tamed?" Theron lounged back on the rock. "You present too much of a challenge for people."

Ryou leaned against the back of the cave and allowed himself to close his eyes. "I've heard that before, too." Noble D'Noir taunted him endlessly about how he'd claimed to be unbreakable and how he'd been tamed so quickly.

Ryou wasn't quite willing to believe that himself. He knew he had to do what he'd been told in those days after his abduction and before he'd been brought to Camula and Ruthven. But he'd done it because he had no choice, not because he feared Noble D'Noir or even the royal vampires. Because he longed for his freedom and the only way he could get anything close to it was to listen.

And now his freedom had been taken away again. Once again someone wanted him as a tool.

Sooner or later, Theron would learn – as would Noble D'Noir – that this tool would turn on them. Ryou anticipated the day when he would not only be able to snap Theron's neck but ram a stake into Noble D'Noir's heart. Or whatever he had that passed for one.

He wanted to be out of here. He wanted to roam, to find Teacher Samejima and be assured of his safety, to find Shou and make sure that no one had harmed him. Theron's smug smirk kept him right where he was.

"Now, whatever can I do with you while I'm still here," Theron murmured. He didn't seem to expect Ryou to answer the question, so Ryou didn't even glance in his direction. "I have other appointments than you, of course. I need to check on my horde. It's been replenished. The people who survived Sunsdown before – well, they haven't now. My former servant made sure they stayed there long enough for my zombies to change them all."

Ryou's fingers tightened on the rocks beneath him. They closed around one smooth stone, wondering once again at the possibility of slamming this into Theron's head.

The cruel bastard kept on talking. "There were a very few survivors. But they won't be for much longer. Zombies can track anywhere, you know. They don't need to rest. They don't need anything except to eat. So sooner or later, those who escaped will be run down." Ryou could hear him leaning forward. "I wonder if your brother would run from zombies."

The stone in Ryou's hand shattered into useless dust. Theron laughed, head falling back with the strength of it.

"Tell me about him. He knows what you are – tell me about that. Tell me about what he thought when he first saw you as what you are."

Ryou dug his fingers even more into the ground. He pressed his lips together for a few seconds, then squared up his shoulders. This wasn't how he'd wanted to spend his time, but if talking about Shou kept this monster from actually going after him, then Ryou would talk about him.

"I didn't go back home for another year after I was turned," Ryou said quietly. "I needed to learn how to be a vampire. To hunt, to feed. To control the hunger and now how often I needed to feed." His fingers moved a bit through the dust. "In fact, I didn't intend to go home at all. Not then. I wanted to see them – but it wasn't how I thought it would be."

* * *

Night after night, Ryou went out to varying sizes of settlements, ranging from small hamlets to the few large cities within his range, feeding. Camula and Ruthven taught him that he didn't need to kill when he fed – he'd already known that, since they hadn't killed him. But he needed to learn how to do it for himself.

He didn't think of how long he'd been gone from home then. He wasn't even sure if he even thought of his old village _as_ home. It was where he came from and nothing more, more often than not.

One night, on the dark of the moon, he wafted his way through the evening air, settling down outside of a prosperous village that he somewhat recognized. He wasn't sure of when he'd been there, just that he probably had been before. He'd encountered places like that in the months since he'd awakened to fangs and the hunger for blood. Most of the time nothing sparked anything more than the vaguest memories, most of which faded after the initial spark. He stopped worrying about it altogether.

So far as he was concerned, this place remained the same way. A place he might have visited before, when he'd still been human, but which now only meant a place where humans he could feed from lived.

There were still people moving around through the streets, even though it was already after dark. Stars glimmered overhead, as did lanterns and enchanted gemstones set in windows or on poles. This was one of the more modern towns, with well-made walls and even electricity. There weren't as many places that had the old forms of power as there had been before the Great Fusion. Most of those were the rebuilt versions of some of the old great cities, a handful of which still were centers of civilization.

But Ryou ignored most of that except as side information, something to be aware of but not vital to his experiences right now. He moved through the streets, searching for someone who might be his prey for the night. He wasn't allowed a blood slave of his own – he might have earned one of his own in another century or two, but not now. Camula and Ruthven were very strict on who could have one and who couldn't.

He stood in the shadows of an alleyway, considering his options. He'd seen a few who were definitely tasty, but he wanted to choose someone who wouldn't be harmed by his biting them, someone strong and resilient. Ruthven and Camula didn't always exercise that kind of care in their choices, taking whoever struck their fancy or who had been given to them.

But another principle guided Ryou. He didn't have a word for it as of yet. Sometimes a thought for it ghosted in the back of his mind but he didn't think it for very long. It took too much effort just to live to worry about anything else.

Noise caught his attention and he glanced towards it. Humans might not have seen as clearly as he did, but he easily identified a group of half a dozen tall, muscular types circling around someone smaller than they were.

"Are you going to hand over the money, Marufuji?" One of them, who seemed to be the leader, asked. Ryou's eyes narrowed. He knew he'd forgotten a great deal about his human life, but he knew his own name, at least.

"No! You're not going to have this!"

_That voice..._ Ryou frowned. Just like the name it teased at him. He heard it differently, more because of his own changed and heightened senses than anything else, but he recognized that voice. Or he wanted to recognize it. It felt like he _should_ recognize it.

Quick as a shadow, he moved over to where they'd cornered the other person, keeping him penned in so he couldn't escape. Now he had a better look at them all. They wouldn't see him until he wanted them to. Like any good predator, he had all of the advantages here.

There wasn't much about them to set them apart. Dark hair, dark eyes, roughly dressed, hands revealing that they likely didn't work for a living, and no indication that they were duelists at all. Ryou's lip curled. Hardly worth the effort. He considered just leaving them all. What would it matter if he didn't?

"You'd better hand it over, Marufuji. You know what we're going to do if you don't." The leader of the group sneered, cracking his knuckles. "You're still pretty bruised up from last time."

Ryou shifted to get a better look at that. Yes, the boy – no, young man, a couple of years younger than himself – had a couple of healing bruises on his face, and the way that he moved said that he had more underneath his clothes. Yet he still faced the bullies in front of him with furious eyes and clenched fists.

Now Ryou rested his attention fully on their wanna-be victim. Somewhat short, but he stared up at his attackers as if he were twice their size. He had a great deal of courage, Ryou recognized. Someone worth saving. Someone worth helping.

The leader started to move forward, one hand raised, and the young man stood his ground, jaw set stubbornly. Now Ryou saw his entire face, cyan-blue hair in a lighter, brighter shade of his own, and large eyes behind spectacles. Large gray eyes full of rage and fear.

"Wonder what his precious big brother would think of him now – if he can think of anything. I dunno, _do_ dead people think?" One of the lackeys mocked. The young man snarled, throwing himself forward without another thought, crashing his shoulder against the one who'd spoken.

"Don't you talk about my brother! He's not dead! Ryou's not dead!"

Voice. Face. Eyes. Name. All of those clicked into Ryou's mind, and the world around him reshaped itself. He wasn't just Ryou, the freshly turned Child of Ruthven and Camula. He was Marufuji Ryou, brother to Marufuji Shou.

Marufuji Shou,, who stood there right now, bruised and being bullied, and fighting for honor that Ryou didn't think he even had anymore, for a brother who was dead and alive at the same time.

Now Ryou also recognized the ones who tried to bully his brother – offspring of other families in town, who'd never had the nerve to stand against him when he'd lived in the town.

But they seemed very eager and ready to stand against someone like Shou, who now struggled in the lackey's grip, and all of them laughed as they started to push him from one to another.

_No more._ Ryou stepped into their little circle and his hand landed on Shou's shoulder.

"It isn't polite to talk about people behind their backs," he said, voice quiet and full of repressed rage. All of them fell silent, their mocking laughs cut off. Shou jerked his head up, staring at him, eyes growing rounder by the moment.

"Big brother..." Tears welled up before he dashed them away with one quick swipe of his hand. "You're back. I _knew_ you weren't dead!"

The leader of the group shook his head, stepping forward. "So where have you been for the last couple of years? Hiding out somewhere? Run away?"

Ryou smiled. "No. Becoming a vampire." And his smile widened until his fangs could be seen and he leaped forward, burying his fangs into the leader's neck, drinking freely.

Never before had he fed like this, enjoying the fear and terror coursing through the blood, gripping onto the struggling boy's shoulders as he drained every last ounce from him. By the time he stopped moving and Ryou dropped him to his feet, Ryou and Shou were the only two there. Shou kept on staring and swallowed briefly.

"Big brother? Is that really you?" Shou started to reach for him then pulled his hand back. "You said – and then you="

Ryou stared down at him. Ever since he'd woken up, he'd known in the back of his mind that he had a brother named Shou. He hadn't thought about what Shou looked like or where he was, but he'd been somewhat aware of his existence. Until now.

"Yes. I'm a vampire. That's why I left." Ryou did not take his eyes away from his brother. "It's complicated." He wasn't even sure if he wanted to stay now that he'd fed. He needed to be back with Camula and Ruthven by sunrise.

Shou kept on staring at him. "Can you – let's – let's go home. Mom and Dad have missed you. So's Fubuki-san."

Fubuki. Right. His best friend, once upon a time. He didn't think that he had any real friends now. He rubbed his forehead, trying to get his thoughts together. They moved through a thick treacle of emptiness but the longer he stayed there, the longer he thought he could think clearly.

"I can't. I have somewhere else to be." He considered his options, then glanced at the dead body at his feet. He didn't feel a bit of worry at having done that. He knew his own nature now. "You should leave too. All of you."

Shou shook his head. "Big brother, what are you talking about? You're home – aren't you?"

"No. I'm a vampire now, Shou. And I've killed someone in defense of you." He didn't care but he also knew how others would think. "Tell Mother and Father. Leave here." He wanted to say that he would find them elsewhere, but he couldn't be certain. It would really be far safer for them if they departed this place and never saw him again.

But Shou dug his heels in. "You need to come home! Everyone's missed you and you're back!"

Ryou reached down and picked Shou up by his shoulders, staring right into his eyes. At the moment, full of blood, he felt as if he could do anything. Doing this didn't feel right, but it definitely felt necessary.

"Go home. I don't care what you tell Mother and Father, but get them to leave. Do it before anyone finds out what happened here. There might not even be enough time now." The other fools likely would've already told someone what happened. Even hiding the body wouldn't do much more than buy them a short span of time.

With every word he spoke, he bent his will towards Shou, overriding every thought that his brother had in the all-consuming need to get away from there. But he couldn't help one tiny extra promise.

"I'll find you again. I promise, Shou."

He kept that promise. But not without a great deal of heartache for them both.

* * *

**To Be Continued**

**Notes:** Next chapter we get back to Jim and O'Brien. And maybe some others.


	13. Chapter 13

**Series:** World of Fusion||**Title:** War of the Undead  
**Characters:** Jim, Nero, O'Brien, Samejima||**Ship:** N/A  
**Chapters:** 13-50||**Chapter Words:** 3,093||**Total Words:** 40,013  
**Genre:** Drama, Supernatural||**Rated:** PG  
**Challenges:** Diversity Writing, GX: Fused World, L2, 2000-6000 wpc; One Character Boot Camp, Marufuji Ryou, #19, rebel; Include The Word, #47, multipy; Chapter Set Boot Camp, #24, 50 chaptrs; Advent 2015-2016, GX, bonus #1: roll for fic length: between 100,000-200,000 words; Christmas Advent 2017, New Year's Special, start a new fic and update it once a week; Epic Masterclass, YGO GX, #4, AU Space  
**Notes:** Same universe as **Raised To His Word** but featuring other characters. A little backstory will appear as well. Also, the character notes up top here will change depending on who is involved in each chapter.  
**Summary:** The first strike in war involves doing as much damage as you possibly can – such as taking one of your enemy's strongest warriors and using him to get the strongest weapons. Ryou never thought he'd enjoy being a vampire but this is a whole new level. Perhaps it's a good thing he has a teacher and some new friends to help him out.

* * *

Jim threw his head back and let out a wild yell of pure delight as he and Karen bounced across with his buggy. He preferred walking whenever they were in civilized places such as villages, towns, or the rare city, but when they were out here in the wilderness, _this_ was his favorite way to get from place to place, at least when he needed to do so in a hurry.

The dragon's message meant he was in a hurry right now. He wasn't certain of what he could do to help O'Brien but he'd do whatever he found that he could do.

The Eye of Orichalcum didn't precisely warm, but he could feel a hint of awareness that could only come from it. He drew to a halt and looked around, checking with Karen to see if she noticed anything. Her head raised as well, sniffing at the wind that gusted by.

Wind that carried a particular scent. Jim's eye narrowed and he rested a hand on his deck, another part of him reaching out as well, probing at the world around him. He'd always had a knack for sensing the awareness of plants, regardless of if they were spirit plants or not. The latter were just easier for other people to talk to.

But now he slowly slid out of the buggy and moved carefully, taking each step as if it could betray him if he stepped wrong. He'd parked behind a thick grove of trees, which would protect him from most casual observation. Wariness crept between his shoulders as he moved closer to the edge of the trees, watching for whatever it was he'd scented.

_Kind of wish I'd smelled zombies before._ It was easy to track zombies by scent – because they reeked so strongly that anyone who possessed a sense of smell could find them. Vampires, at least, knew how to take a bath and use soap.

So he wasn't that surprised when he saw a small knot of zombies lurching through a stretch of pale green grass. They seemed focused on something, and a quick glance ahead showed Jim what it was. He held back a deep sigh, not wanting the undead creatures to hear him. The slightest sound could get a zombie's attention.

Ahead of the zombies, fleeing as fast as his legs could take him, scurried a young person. Jim wasn't sure if they were male or female; he was too far away to identify right now. They were clearly terrified, though. Not a surprising thing. Most people ended up terrified of zombies.

Jim hurried on back to his buggy and tucked himself back inside, twisting around to point himself down towards where the zombies lurched. Quite glad that Fossil Wagon Skull Buggy didn't need any fuel other than his own willpower, he targeted the fleeing child and raced towards there as fast as possible.

He passed the zombies without so much as a look. The child threw a look over one shoulder, eyes widening at the sound of Skull Buggy's engine, and even more so when Jim stopped long enough to get their attention.

"Unless you want to be dinner, best get in!"

The child blinked only for a moment, then jumped inside. Jim didn't waste another breath, but wrenched Skull Buggy to start back the way he'd been going, and put on an extra burst of speed. In mere moments, the zombies were out of sight. Jim wasn't sure of what they would do now, but getting them both to where O'Brien was remained more the priority.

"So what's your name, kid?" Jim asked once he was sure the zombies weren't gong to catch up to them. As if they'd even had a chance against Skull Buggy in the first place.

Now that he had the chance to look, he could see this was a boy, if that was even the right word to use. The kid looked about six or s even years younger than Jim himself: a teenager, at best. He also didn't look half as terrified as he had been when he was running.

"Nero, sir," the boy replied, ducking his head. He swallowed and glanced back over his shoulder. "They – those things – they found our farm a couple of days ago. My grandfather – my mother " He shook his head and stared down for a breath, guilt-stricken. "I ran away. I've been running ever since then."

Jim would have patted him on the shoulder if he could.. Instead he offered his best hopeful smile.. "You survived is what you did. I'll get you somewhere safe. Do you have any other relatives? Know anywhere you'd like to be?"

Nero chewed at his lower lip for a few seconds before he answered. "I don't know. I had a friend who used to live at the next place over but he moved to Winter's Arm a few months ago to join the town guard." He made a noise that sort of sounded like a tired laugh. "Kyle always wanted to be a soldier. I wanted to go with him, but grandfather wanted me to wait another year." He shook his head before he looked back at Jim. "Who're you, sir?"

"I didn't introduce myself, did I?" Jim snorted in amusement. "I'm Jim Crocodile Cook, and this is Karen."

Karen offered a welcoming growl and Nero stared at her as if he'd never seen a crocodile up close and personal before. Maybe he hadn't. He swallowed some and inched back. "Uh, nice to meet you?"

"Karen won't hurt you," Jim promised. "She only hurts people who want to hurt me."

Nero swallowed again, but didn't move anymore. "I'm not going to hurt you!"

"Didn't think you would." Jim considered for a few moments. "I'm going to meet up a friend of min so we can do something about these zombies. We'll see if we can find your friend and get you set up at Winter's Arm. I've been there before; nice place. You'll be safe there."

Nero slumped a little downwards, breathing hard in relief. "Thank you, sir. I've never been there myself. Kyle sent me a few letters, but I haven't gotten any in a while." He stared out at the scenery zipping by. "The city's probably amazing."

"I've been to a few. They're not bad. I prefer it out here, though." Jim waved one hand at the trees and grass all around. He could've named each and every tree, bush, flower, herb, and random spirit that he saw if he'd needed to. Just being out here made him feel far better than being within walls of any kind.

Nero nodded, lapsing into silence, his eyes half-closed. Jim suspected that he hadn't been sleeping in far too long. No one who wanted to survive zombies could spend too much time sleeping.

Jim frowned as they kept on going. He had a pretty good idea of where Sunsdown was – had been – but he wasn't sure about the fountain that the dragon had mentioned. He doubted Nero would know either.

_I'm going to have to get directions._ He had a very interesting way to get them if he needed them, too. He headed right for a copse of oaks, parking just outside of them. Nero's head jerked up when he stopped, confusion clear as Jim stepped out of the buggy.

"Stay there," Jim advised him. "I'm just getting directions. This won't take long."

Jim stepped into the center of the copse and looked around. There were several trees here, most of them perfectly ordinary plants. The same for the smaller bushes and flowers that grew everywhere as well. But a few of them caught his eye as not being especially normal, no matter how hard they tried to look that way. If he hadn't been paying attention, one of the vines that snaked close by his leg might well have wrapped around him and dragged him into the half-hidden mouth.

Instead, Jim reached over and tapped the green mouth attached to the vines. He gave the plant one of his best stern looks.

"Stop that. I have a question."

The vine stopped where it was. He'd been aware of the _awareness_ of the half-dozen or so spirits in here since he'd stepped between the trees, but now that consciousness focused on him as more than just something to eat. He stood his ground, folded his arms across his chest, and gave them his very best stare.

Finally the one that he tapped rose up a bit and opened a large toothy mouth. "What is it you wish, greensoul?"

Other plants and spirits had called Jim that before. None of them could explain to him what they meant, and for the most part Jim assumed it had something to do with the fact he was an earth mage. He put it aside now, as he always did, for what mattered more.

"I'm looking for a sacred fountain. Is there one around here somewhere?" He would've preferred to ask a water spirit if he could find one, but the earth and plant spirits responded to him so much easier.

The plants raised their heads and exchanged looks among themselves. Then the one he'd touched spoke.

"The sacred fountain lies that way." One tentacle rose and gestured farther along the way that he'd been going. "I've never been there myself." The creature coughed and Jim wondered if it would blush if it could. "I'm a bit grounded here."

Jim chuckled. "So I see." His eyes flicked from one to the other of them. He named them to himself: the one that he spoke to was Man-Eating Plant, while its cousin Man-Eater grew next to it. On the other side there grew Tentacle Plant, vines moving slowly through the ground as if it shuffled. All of them were meat-eaters. Jim spied a small spray of bones underneath Tentacle Plant; it didn't look quite as hungry as the others.

"But we've seen sprites and fairies who come through here and they've talked abbot it," Man-Eating Plant reported. Tentacle Plant chuckled.

"Some of them, that's the last thing that they talked about." The tentacles shifted a bit more. "But they did say that it's that way. There are dragons there sometimes. Dragons taste _good_."

Jim quirked an eyebrow. "I wouldn't know. I've never eaten dragon."

"You should try, greensoul," Tentacle Plant said. "It would be delicious."

Jim shrugged before he tilted his head in farewell. "Thanks for the information. I do have a question – do you prefer living meat or dead meat?"

"Depends," Man-Eater replied, leaning forward. "What sort of meat are you talking about?"

"Zombies. There could be some coming this way. I don't know if we threw them off or not. But I don't think they'd try to eat you and if you could get rid of them for me, I'd be ever so grateful."

The three of them shifted closer to one another and Jim had the very strong feeling that they spoke to one another in a way that even he couldn't understand. Finally Man-Eating Plant responded.

"I've never tasted zombie before. But we'll consider it, if they come this way. We cannot go hunting for them. We're not that kind of plant."

Jim nodded. "I understand. But thank you for trying." He took several steps back, not taking his eyes off of the plants. It wasn't likely they would attack him, but he wasn't going to be rude to turn his back, not until he was out of the copse entirely.

He made his way back to the buggy, where Nero still sat, hands gripping on the bar, eyes darting around faster and faster until he could see Jim again.

"Who could you get directions from there?" Nero asked as Jim settled himself back into his seat. "Were there dryads there? I've heard about dryads but I've never met one before."

"I have. They're very dedicated to their trees. I like them," Jim agreed as he got started again. "But I was talking to some of the plant spirits there. They told me where we're going. Ever hear of a sacred fountain around here?"

"Just a few stories from travelers," Nero said. "They never seem to agree on where it is or what it's like. Some of them say that no one can get in there who doesn't already belong there. Why are we going there?"

"That's where my friend is. Don't know why he's there, though." He suspected they would find out once they arrived.

"Hiding from zombies? Everything I've heard says that it's protected." Nero said. "I wish our farm had been protected." His eyes dropped again and Jim kept quiet, focusing on getting them to that fountain as fast as they could.

It turned out not to be that difficult to find the place. Not only did he see the encircled area of the fountain clearly, but the dragon who'd come to give him the message perched before the door, licking great lips, and keeping watch.

Nero stared at the dragon, eyes wide and shocked, ducking his head down and trying to hide behind Jim a breath later, trembling. "D-dragon! That's a d-dragon!"

"Yup. Don't be afraid. This is a friend of mine too," Jim said. He nodded a greeting to the dragon. "Even if we've only met once before." Jim didn't call many folk his friends but all creatures of the earth counted on the list. He slipped out of the buggy and waited for Nero to join him before he called the car back to the card.

The dragon leaned forward, sniffing at Jim, Karen, and Nero. His gem-bright eyes focused on Nero. "I see you found a new friend, greensoul?"

"This is Nero. I found him escaping the zombie dinner plate. The ones he ran away from might not get here, though. I asked some plants to help. Can't say for sure, but we'll see." Jim shrugged and looked around. "So where's O'Brien?"

The dragon snaked his head over his shoulder and nudged at the door in the wall. "Inside here," he said as the doors opened. Jim tilted his hat forward and gestured for Nero to join him. Karen murmured and Jim rested a hand on her snout.

"Everything's all right, Karen," he assured her. Jim knew he wasn't entirely certain about that, but he'd rather she didn't get upset. No one wanted an upset crocodile to deal with, not even him.

Striding across the green meadow inside of the walls, Jim saw a very welcome figure – O'Brien himself, wearing borrowed clothes nothing like his usual attire, with evidence of recent wounds on his arms and legs. The way he moved indicated there'd been other injuries as well, but those might well be healed for the most part. Jim's fingers itched with the desire to heal those; he'd never been much for healing magic, but he still itched for that regardless.

"It's been a while, Jim," O'Brien said, one hand extended. Jim took it in his own, craving that deep warmth that glowed from within the warrior before him. "Good to see you."

"Likewise," Jim agreed. "This is Nero." He gestured the teenager to join them, nodding a friendly greeting, and quickly murmuring about how they'd crossed paths. O'Brien greeted the boy with a quick tilt of his head, before gesturing to an older man who rose from a bench.

"This is Teacher Samejima. He knows a little more than I do about what's been going on."

Jim nodded back towards him. Samejima greeted them both before he started his story – a student turned vampire in danger, a set of demonic cards in even more danger, and a war that hovered on the edge of flaring.

"We don't know enough," Jim decided as soon as Samejima finished. "First thing we need is more information. Is your student – would he know more?"

"He might know anything by now. Depends on exactly what's happening to him." Samejima told them. "But what I need is to get to the Sangenma – I need to choose a successor and I need to make certain they're well guarded. The cards and my successor."

Jim nodded. "We need to get Nero safely to Winter's Rest, too."

Nero's eyes flicked from one to another, a deep determination in his expression. "I want to go – but can I help you? You already helped me, Mr. Cook. I should do something to repay that."

Jim wasn't entirely certain of what Nero could do. O'Brien answered for him. "We might need your help later. Are you any good at scouting?"

"A little. I used to go out and watch the birds and whatever else went flying by back home." Nero shrugged. "I'm really good at running, too. So if I saw a zombie I could run and let you know."

O'Brien nodded. "Do you know how to duel?"

"Sort of. I never had the chance to practice at it too much. Grandfather didn't want me to get recruited by anyone before I was grown up." Nero wrinkled his nose before a flicker of memory, likely about what happened to his family, riffled through his eyes. "But I guess I don't have to worry about that now."

"We can get you some cards later and some lessons. Right now, we need to see what's going on back at Sunsdown and see if we can find Marufuji Ryou."

O'Brien turned and gestured to the little dragon seated next to where Samejima had been. "Fairy Dragon, do you think you could help?"

"Of course!" Fairy Dragon squeaked, head held up proudly. "I might not have found him the first time but I can do it this time, I promise!"

"All right, then that's what we do. It's dark, so we have the best chance of finding a vampire out and about – if whoever's keeping him wants to keep him in one piece, they won't bring him out in the daylight. So Fairy Dragon and Nero can go searching for him, once Nero's had something to eat. Teacher Samejima, our friend the dragon here can take you to your Dojo to check on those demonic cards and whatever you need to do for your successor," O'Brien summed it all up. Nero brightened at his words – or at the prospect of having something toe at. Jim looked forward to having something himself. It was always a good idea to eat hearty before something important started, and he couldn't think of anything more important than this.

* * *

**To Be Continued**

**Notes:** In case you're curious, there will come a point when Jim, O'Brien, Samejima, Ryou, Shou, and at least some of the OCs are all in the same place at the same time. All the plot threads will come together by the end. Absolutely promise!

Also, I've kinda gotten hooked on the idea of Nero and Kyle being friends.

Final note: Nero and Kyle are both fifteen. Jim and O'Brien are both twenty-three. Ryou is twenty-five but looks seventeen because that's when he was turned/stopped aging. Samejima is in his sixties. He's one of the few living humans who remembers the world before the Great Fusion.


	14. Chapter 14

**Series:** World of Fusion||**Title:** War of the Undead  
**Characters:** Ryou, Theron, Assassin, Noble D'Noir||**Ship:** N/A  
**Chapters:** 14-50||**Chapter Words:** 3,009||**Total Words:** 43,022  
**Genre:** Drama, Supernatural||**Rated:** PG  
**Challenges:** Diversity Writing, GX: Fused World, L2, 2000-6000 wpc; One Character Boot Camp, Marufuji Ryou, #19, rebel; Include The Word, #47, multipy; Chapter Set Boot Camp, #24, 50 chaptrs; Advent 2015-2016, GX, bonus #1: roll for fic length: between 100,000-200,000 words; Christmas Advent 2017, New Year's Special, start a new fic and update it once a week; Epic Masterclass, YGO GX, #4, AU Space  
**Notes:** Same universe as **Raised To His Word** but featuring other characters. A little backstory will appear as well. Also, the character notes up top here will change depending on who is involved in each chapter.  
**Summary:** The first strike in war involves doing as much damage as you possibly can – such as taking one of your enemy's strongest warriors and using him to get the strongest weapons. Ryou never thought he'd enjoy being a vampire but this is a whole new level. Perhaps it's a good thing he has a teacher and some new friends to help him out.

* * *

Theron rose to his feet. "Well, that was a very fascinating story and I can't wait to hear how your parents were burned alive because you were a vampire and killed someone in your hometown instead of staking yourself like a sensible person would." The smirk across his lips could not have been more smug if he'd been responsible for all of that himself. "Not to mention how you persuaded – or brainwashed – your brother into becoming your servant."

Ryou stood on his own feet a breath later, cold rage radiating outward. "I never brainwashed my brother." His fingers flexed; if it weren't for Noble D'Noir's orders he would have taken them both out right then and there and gotten out of this annoying situation. But the commands remained in tight bondage around his limbs.

"That's not what I've heard. But we can finish this another time." Theron glanced towards Assassin. "I'm going now. Remember, he's to stay here and if that warrior shows up, keep them here until I get back." His gaze flickered back to Ryou. "I quite look forward to seeing you wearing what I have planned. Something nice to negate every ability you have."

He raised one hand in an even worse mockery of a proper farewell. "Until tomorrow night."

He was out of the cave a few breaths later. Ryou glared after him, fighting the urge to strangle whatever he could get his hands on. He tried to ignore Assassin, until what he'd heard sank in a bit more.

"A warrior?" Whatever was going to happen, he wanted information on this.

For a few seconds he expected Assassin not to say anything at all. They'd been hired to guard him, after all, not for conversation.

But Assassin spoke. "Theron's superiors have sent someone to inspect his successes." There was something that might have hinted at humor in the mostly bland tone. "They want not only the Guardian of the Sangenma, but you as well, spawn of Camula."

Ryou snorted at that. If it came to it, he could defend himself on that score. Noble D'Noir's orders kept him bound to Theron's orders, not to anyone else.

"Theron doesn't intend to hand you ever. He does intend to keep you – for whatever reasons of his own that he has."

That got another snort. "Of course he does." At the moment, he thought he would have been perfectly happy if he saw Noble D'Noir and Theron going down together, D'Noir with his fangs buried in Theron's neck while Theron stabbed D'Noir in the heart with a stake. Such a sight would please hi for centuries to come.

But for now he settled back on the rock he'd chosen for his own. His gaze strayed to the door and he wondered once again if it would be possible to slip by Assassin's guard. Or if he could persuade the other to let him go, even if it were just long enough to send a message.

Shou should know that there were threats in the area, threats that he should take care of as soon as possible. Shou would be capable of taking care of himself against quite a few attackers, especially with the defenses available at the mansion. But he needed to know what he was up against before that could happen.

And if Theron really wanted to be cruel – which in fairness he likely did – then it would be twistedly easy for the mansion to fall. His control over Ryou would make that possible. Shou would trust him. Shou always trusted him. So Ryou had to do something so that Shou wouldn't, at least not until he could get away from Theron.

He tugged his thoughts back to the present. He needed to stay focused there now. He'd done more than enough dreaming of the past lately. Now he had to think about how to get out of this.

_Where would Teacher Samejima go?_ He needed to find that out, for his own reasons, not for Theron's sake. He had to believe that Samejima still lived, mostly because if he didn't, he fully expected Theron would have mocked him for it by now. The only thing holding him back would be if he didn't know about it yet. If that were so, then once he did know… well, he'd figure out what to do then.

But now he walked on that mental road. Samejima remained alive. Samejima was somewhere that the zombies couldn't yet find him. Their ability to hunt and track relentlessly meant that the old man wouldn't be able to keep away from them forever. Not unless he had help of some kind.

_So he has help. The question then is what kind of help and what else can they do for him?_

All that moved into subjects that he not only had no way of knowing but couldn't do anything about if he did know. His ability to affect anything right now remained almost nil.

**Don't move.**

Oh. Noble D'Noir again. Ryou kept himself still, not betraying D'Noir's presence by so much as a raised eyebrow or curled lip. Where was the other?

Ah. There. Behind Assassin, moving in the way that only the deadliest of predators could. If Assassin noticed, he did nothing at all. Not even a flicker of a muscle tensing.

At least not until he whirled around, a sharp blade in his hands that sliced to where Noble D'Noir stood. Or had stood. The vampire wasn't there anymore, and even Ryou couldn't be certain where he was at first. Assassin whirled back around, moving to stand closer to Ryou. There wasn't a hint of protection in his moves, but definite threat.

"Make another move, vampire, and this one will suffer for it."

Noble D'Noir laughed softly. "Do you really think that I care? He's more my tool than he is Theron's toy. As you are going to become."

Assassin made no further moves, though his stance didn't relax for a heartbeat. Ryou could feel the pressure of D'Noir's mind on his own and knew exactly what he was to do. His own muscles tensed in readiness as D'Noir dropped down in front of them, his lips curled back from his fangs.

His eyes glowed a dark, rich red, centering on Assassin's own eyes. Assassin snorted.

"As if something like that would work on me." He started to move forward again, at a speed that would be blinding – to anyone who wasn't a vampire. Ryou caught his arms and held them with little effort, before reaching up to remove the hood that covered Assassin's head.

The cover that also glowed to magic to the eyes of a vampire, concealing not only Assassin's features but blocking any manner of mind control from working on him.

Now Noble D'Noir caught Assassin's chin between his fingers and stared down at him. "A strong mind. It would take me far longer to break you than it did this one here. Perhaps another time, though. I don't need to break you. I only need to use you."

Assassin kept his head up and shoulders tight, refusing to bow down for a moment. If he hadn't been the one keeping Ryou in here, then he might well have felt a bit sorry for him. As it was, Ryou would happily have drained him dry, even having fed so well already.

Noble D'Noir's head flashed forward, and his fangs buried themselves into Assassin's throat. Assassin hissed between his teeth, straining in Ryou's grip, but Ryou didn't ease up for so much as a second. Instead, he waited. Noble D'Noir didn't take much – only about four mouthfuls. But that was enough to do what he wanted to do next.

Once again his eyes burned into Assassin's, and this time the warrior could do nothing to resist. Being fed from, as Ryou knew far too well, weakened both the mind and the soul. Remove his other defenses and Assassin would be as vulnerable as Ryou himself had been.

"You will guard the vampire here, as Theron commanded. But you guard him for me now. You will do as Theron has said – for now. There will come a time when I command you to slay Theron and you will do so without hesitation or relenting. I will pay you for that – and I will not ask you to do this until you can do it without breaking your contract with him."

Ryou let out a light snort. Noble D'Noir knew people and he'd heard himself of the order that Assassin belonged to. They would never break a contract under any circumstances and by offering payment and assuring him that he wouldn't be asked to do this until he was free of the one he was bound to now meant he wouldn't resist as much.

He could feel Assassin relaxing as Noble D'Noir's will overwhelmed his. Then, slowly, at Noble D'Noir's unspoken command, he released his captive. Assassin sagged down to the ground, his eyes glazed. Without the hood, he looked like any common human. Ryou glanced at the thing he held, then put it aside, where it couldn't be easily reached.

Noble D'Noir carefully licked his lips. "Very good blood. Almost as good as yours used to be."

Ryou said nothing to that. The other vampire chuckled. "You could say thank you. I've freed you, to an extent. Theron won't know that you're free, and as long as you return here to continue spying on him, he won't know at all." He kicked Assassin with one booted foot. "He won't say anything. He'll take your orders as well as mine now."

Ryou pressed his lips together. "You set this up." That alone made sense to him.

"My dear Marufuji." Noble D'Noir smirked at him. "Whatever makes you say that?" Before Ryou could answer, he laughed. "Not that I didn't. But what makes you believe it?"

"Because all of this would only make sense to you, and you already told me a lot of it. You're attempting to use this war to take over from Camula and Ruthven." Ryou bit the words off. "You're going to use the zombies to get the Sangenma and then use them to destroy those two."

Noble D'Noir patted him on the shoulder. "Oh, you're better than I thought you were. No matter how it works out, I win. And if you are a very good boy and serve me faithfully, then I will see to it that you sit at my feet afterwards. You won't be a good blood slave anymore, and I really don't think you're qualified to be the ruler of a realm of any size, but I will need someone who can kill for me when I don't feel like doing it for myself." He tapped one finger against his lips for a few seconds. "i think _executioner_ sounds like a fine title. What do you think?"

"You don't want to know."

The vampire laughed again, a sound that reflected an utter lack of not caring. "You're probably right that I don't. Not that it matters. You're going to do exactly what I tell you to do, because that's your role in this game. Camula and Ruthven might've turned you but I put you into position so they could." He leaned forward, tongue flashing across where the pulse of Ryou's blood had been years earlier. "And I fed from you. I taught you how to obey. I will always have first claim on you."

He regarded Ryou thoughtfully. "But I think I need to do something so that you'll remember that."

He held up one slender hand and jerked his head in a motion Ryou remembered all too vividly from the night Ruthven and Camula held a party in his honor – the night that he'd become a vampire. Blood welled up from the slash on Noble D'Noir's hand and he pressed it against Ryou's mouth.

"Drink. Drink until I tell you not to."

_When a vampire drinks the blood of another vampire, the one who drinks must obey for the turning of one moon._

Oh, he remembered that so very well. One of the first lessons that he'd learned. It was different from being turned; it was considered more of a punishment than anything else. But now Noble D'Noir's blood flowed hot down his throat and Ryou hated every drop of it. Noble D'Noir kept his other unwounded hand behind his head, until Ryou couldn't take another drop, and staggered back, taking in breaths that he needed more to steady himself than anything else.

He'd been free from Camula and Ruthven's control for years now. He enjoyed not having to take their orders without question, though he still acknowledged them as his lieges. But now another sensation overlaid his mind – a focus on Noble D'Noir.

The elder vampire smiled at him. "I think I want to see you on your knees, little one."

With nothing more than that to command him, Ryou slid down to his knees, holding himself back from shaking from rage only by sheer force of will. He' always hated this – being utterly subservient to someone else. And it could happen again, if Noble D'Noir's war didn't resolve in the next moon. He would be fed again and again.

"How lovely a sight," Noble D'Noir purred. "If only I could stay here forever to admire it. But I fear that I have matters of my own to take care of. I don't think that you'll object, though. One of those matters involves seeing to your little brother's safety. That's what you want, isn't it?"

Before Ryou could answer, Noble D'Noir shook his head. "No need. But before I go: you'll speak to no one about my visit here or what I've done, no matter what. You may choose to go hunting but if you do, return here before sunrise. Do nothing that might arose anyone's suspicions as to the true nature and cause of these events. Assassin: you will continue to guard him as you were ordered. If he goes to hunt, then go with him, in order to keep your word to your employer. Under no circumstances is Theron to know what's happened here tonight. Do you both understand?"

Assassin nodded as he started to sit back up. So did Ryou, who remained where he was. Noble D'Noir eyed him for another few moments before a deep sigh.

"You may both stand once I've gone. But when I return – and I will – I expect you both on your knees. It's quite a good look for both of you."

Then between one moment and the next, he was gone. Assassin dragged himself up and looked for his hood, which Ryou gave to him as he stood as well. For a few moments neither of them said anything else. Assassin broke the silence.

"Are you going to go out?"

"I need to. I can't stop him from going to the mansion for my brother, but I can at least try to find my old teacher and warn him of what's going on." Ryou pressed his lips together. "If they're going to get the Sangenma, I'm going to at least make it _difficult_ for them."

He couldn't see Assassin's face now that the hood settled back over his features. But he had a very strong suspicion that those thin lips quirked into a bit of a smile.

"I think I know a place you can start. There isn't much around in this area but I've been around here before. There's a fountain a fair distance from Sunsdown. It has a guardian there, Izumi. I knew her before I became an Assassin. If anyone knows anything about what's going on, I would believe she and her sister do. It's close enough that we could get there and back before the sun comes up. As long as we don't waste too much time."

Ryou started to nod before his eyes narrowed. "Why are you helping me? Because of Noble D'Noir?" At least he could still use the other's name. He was grateful for that much. He wouldn't put it past D'Noir to demand to be addressed only as "master".

"No. I _guard_ you because of Theron's money, the contract with him, and D'Noir's orders. I'm helping you because I don't like to see people used unwillingly." He raised one hand to his neck and rubbed where D'Noir's fangs entered. "And I don't like being used unwillingly myself. My superiors are going to be very unhappy about this."

That was good enough for Ryou. "Then let's go. The sooner we get to this fountain, the better." He wasn't going to hold too tightly to the thought that his teacher could be there. He had no idea of how far they'd made it before losing Cyber Phoenix or what sort of condition that Samejima might have been in after the fall he most assuredly had taken. Not to mention that he'd already been hurt before that. It didn't bode well no matter what.

He hesitated before taking another step towards the exit. The sight of a little splashed blood from when he'd fed on the false priest reminded him of something. "Theron took my deck. I want it back."

Assassin glanced away, his shoulders tightening the faintest of bits. "Haven't seen it."

Somehow, with that brief hesitation, Ryou suspected that wasn't entirely true. Unfortunately, now wasn't the right time to start shaking down the only ally that he had for something that he couldn't be certain he'd get back. But he would find his deck – he was bonded to it as surely as he was to Camula and Ruthven or even to Noble D'Noir himself. He would find it no matter what.

"Let's go." With no more, he headed out of the cave, partly eager to track down his mentor and partly eager to see what remained of Sunsdown and add it to his mental list of everything that Theron would eventually need to pay for.

* * *

**To Be Continued**

**Notes:** And things are moving forward!


	15. Chapter 15

**Series:** World of Fusion||**Title:** War of the Undead  
**Characters:** Shou, Tesni (OC), Theron (OC)||**Ship:** N/A  
**Chapters:** 15-50||**Chapter Words:** 3,059||**Total Words:** 46,081  
**Genre:** Drama, Supernatural||**Rated:** PG  
**Challenges:** Diversity Writing, GX: Fused World, L2, 2000-6000 wpc; One Character Boot Camp, Marufuji Ryou, #19, rebel; Include The Word, #47, multipy; Chapter Set Boot Camp, #24, 50 chaptrs; Advent 2015-2016, GX, bonus #1: roll for fic length: between 100,000-200,000 words; Christmas Advent 2017, New Year's Special, start a new fic and update it once a week; Epic Masterclass, YGO GX, #4, AU Space  
**Notes:** Same universe as **Raised To His Word** but featuring other characters. A little backstory will appear as well. Also, the character notes up top here will change depending on who is involved in each chapter.  
**Summary:** The first strike in war involves doing as much damage as you possibly can – such as taking one of your enemy's strongest warriors and using him to get the strongest weapons. Ryou never thought he'd enjoy being a vampire but this is a whole new level. Perhaps it's a good thing he has a teacher and some new friends to help him out.

* * *

Shou stared into the thickening night. He could see easier in it than he had when he was younger, mostly out of practice now. But he couldn't begin to compare to Ryou's night vision. A vampire saw the world so very differently than a human did.

And his vampire brother wasn't there right now.

_I should have been back before morning._ And yet he hadn't been. Ryou told him he'd only be gone a short while, that he only needed to find a meal for the night and nothing more.

Ryou was an adult – by human standards if not vampire. He could stay out all day if he wanted to. Or all night. But not for a moment did that mean Shou didn't worry. There were vampire hunters in the world who wouldn't stop to care that Ryou wasn't an _evil_ vampire.

He worried. It was what he did. He'd worried for those years Ryou vanished before, and told himself incessantly that his brother lived and would come home. Even when their own parents gave up hope and signed the paperwork that declared Ryou legally dead, Shou never believed it for so much as a heartbeat.

In all technicality it had been true, but Shou gave up caring about technicalities the moment he looked into his brother's ageless face once again. Now he looked older than Ryou ever would – Ryou, frozen forever at the age of seventeen – and he watched over the vampire's mansion while Ryou did whatever it was he had to do.

He stared out at the lands surrounding again. This wasn't a bad place to live. Far enough away from most settlements that Ryou did have to hunt his meals on a regular basis, but close enough that he had plenty of such places to choose from. It did border on one of the smaller zombie territories – that one run by Decayed Commander – but that didn't make it a bad location. They just had to keep extra guards on that point.

That wasn't the point Ryou went off to when he went hunting the night before, either. Decayed Commander's realm lay to the north. Ryou went to the west. There shouldn't have been any trouble at all. The areas to the west were firmly under the control of the vampires, with every village, hamlet, town, and whatever else they had utterly loyal to their liege.

Who technically was Ryou, but even after the last handful of years, Shou didn't quite have his head wrapped around that part.

He pressed his lips together, staring outward until stars speckled the evening sky, and still saw no hint of his brother.

_He's in trouble._ Shou knew that. He couldn't have explained how he knew it, only that the sense of it ran all through him. It also didn't mean he could do anything at all about it. His responsibly was to watch over the mansion and keep things running smoothly when Ryou wasn't there.

Which didn't make anything any better. He would never cease to be grateful that Ryou trusted him that much, that Ryou defied what the expectations of every other vampire were to give him that responsibility. He didn't know enough about vampire politics to know how bad of an idea this was but from the looks some of the other vampires gave him on their infrequent visits, he knew one thing: they thought it was a _very_ bad idea.

But now he resolutely turned himself away from the window and stalked over to where his own dinner rested. Or he tried to stalk – he'd achieved his full growth but he would never have the kind of long legs that Ryou did – and managed instead a sort of firm stride. Close enough. He settled down at the table and stared at the plate. Still hot; one of the cooks had a positive talent with keeping food hot long beyond when it reasonably should have been.

_I'm not hungry._ He knew he should be. He'd only picked at his food once he realized just how late Ryou was. But when he worried, he lost all of his appetite, at least until whatever he worried about resolved itself.

Shou found his footsteps leading him back to the window. It had been hours since sunset – prime hunting time for vampires.

Something had to have happened to his brother. Ryou would have sent a message back if he'd been delayed. At least he would have normally. Since he hadn't, that meant trouble.

Shou's hand drifted down to his own deck. He pressed his lips together for a few seconds, then made up his mind. He turned away from the window and called for the captain of the guard. There were plenty of human servants in the mansion, all of them subservient to Ryou since he was the master here. But they also listened to Shou – most of the time. When Ryou wasn't around.

"My brother's late from his feeding," he told her almost as soon as she entered the room. One eyebrow quirked upward, but no more than that. "Too late for it to be an accident. So I'm going to go look for him."

Her eyebrow crept up a touch more at that. "Where are you going to look for him? He has a lot of ground he could have covered."

Shou winced. "I know. But I can look all night and all day if I have to. Someone has to have seen him, and my Roids should be able to get in touch with his Cyber Dragons." At least he hoped they could. The two sets of monsters got along reasonably well. He didn't have a lot of other options. Just sitting around here wasn't one of them.

_I didn't look for him when he vanished the first time. I'm not going to make the same mistake twice._

Captain Tesni tilted her head in a slight gesture of acknowledgment. "If that's what you want to do. But at least have some food first. Don't think I haven't noticed you didn't eat yet." Her lips quirked a bit. "You don't want to collapse while searching for him, do you?"

Shou could feel the faintest hints of redness creeping up his cheeks. "I guess you're right." He knew she was. The desire to find out where Ryou was drove him hard, but he knew Tesni and she wouldn't let him cross the gates unless he'd had a decent meal first – and probably packed a lunch or two to go along with him.

"I'll check with the guard and see if they've seen him anywhere, or if anyone knows where he intended to go. Don't go until I get back, please."

"All right," Shou mock-grumbled, more for form's sake than anything else as he settled himself back at the table and started to eat. The cooks who made the food were better at their job than almost anyone else he knew – though they'd never yet served anything that compared to the food they'd had when he was a child, before Ryou vanished.

Shou tried hard not to think about those years Ryou had been gone. His parents had discussed moving to a different place, but hadn't ever gone through with it. He'd never asked, but he suspected they stayed just for the chance that Ryou would come back to them.

Though when he had returned, they hadn't had a chance to actually see him again. Shou's blood ran hot at the memory alone – running back through town with Ryou's orders ringing in his ears, wanting to tell his parents, and turning the corner to see the howling mob already at the front of their home.

He never knew how they found out so fast. It didn't seem to have been long enough. But there the mob was, the parents of the one Ryou killed in the lead, shrieking about Ryou being a monster and unholy and how it was all their parents' fault. Shou hadn't believed that then and he didn't now.

Seeing their home set on fire broke the commands Ryou set in his mind and he fled before the mob could see him. He didn't know where Ryou had vanished off to – Ryou always disappeared, it seemed, and he was left to follow without knowing where to go.

But now he would find his brother. Now he wouldn't wait around for Ryou to come back in whatever condition he was in – probably a bad one.

When Tesni entered the room again, Shou looked down to see that he'd cleaned his plate completely. He'd barely tasted a single thing and couldn't have said what he'd eaten. But it was all gone, every last crumb.

Tesni nodded in approval as she came over. "One of the guards on duty last night said she saw him leave towards the west. He didn't mention which village he planned on stopping at, though."

Shou nodded. He already knew that part, but getting what he knew confirmed wasn't bad. "So I'll probably be gone for a while."

"I already told the cook you're leaving. Wait a few more minutes and he'll have a few meals packed for you."

That got another nod from Shou. He would need to pack a few things other than his deck anyway. At least traveling didn't mean that he'd miss out on Kabayama's cooking. Shou wasn't sure of where Ryou found the curry-loving cook but he found himself grateful every day for the man's presence.

Tesni watched him for a few seconds, a worried tilt to her lips now. "He really shouldn't have been gone this long. It never takes him so long to find a good meal."

"He should've been back in just a couple of hours," Shou agreed. Ryou did have to take care of the entire small territory but that never took this long and if he'd intended to do his rounds, he would've said something either when he left or sent a message later.

Armored fingers drummed against the marble of the dinner table. "I'll send warriors to the other directions as well. It's our responsibility to serve Hell Kaiser and that means making sure he doesn't get into trouble that he can't get himself out of."

That eased a little more of the knot of tension inside of Shou's heart. If he could find Ryou, then all the rest of it would be gone.

Events moved swiftly after that. A servant brought up a sack containing three days' worth of food – more than Shou thought he would need, but he wasn't gong to turn it down. If need be, he would provide food for Ryou himself, which meant that he would need to restore himself afterward. Another pack provided extra means to do that – healing potions of the most refined variety. That and the food would keep him in good condition until he needed to come back here to restock.

He did not want to. He wanted to find Ryou already walking in the door even as he prepared to leave it.

Which, of course, didn't happen. Tesni's warriors were prepared to leave almost as soon as he was, and each gave him a brief salute as everyone began to spread out. Shou considered the cards in his deck and selected Gyroid, calling the creature into existence and hopping on its back.

"Let's go, Gyroid! See if you can find my brother's Cyber Dragons!" After living together for so long, he hoped from the bottom of his heart that his Roids could do that.

Gyroid didn't speak like some monsters, but the creature made an affirmative noise and launched itself forward. They weren't going quite as fast as Ryou or one of his dragons could fly, but Shou thought they covered ground reasonably well enough. He watched for any sign of anyone at all as the mansion slipped out of sight and the land spread around him.

This was a good territory that Ryou had charge of. It would take at least half an hour to get to the nearest settlement this way, and that wasn't a very big one. Shou visited it on his own before; two dozen homes, half that many shops, and everyone else tended to a large farm there, or went to work in the nearby mines.

Technically the mansion counted as being in the mountains. It was cleverly placed so that it remained in shade by day or by night, regardless of the time of year. A perfect residence for the local vampire in charge. It wasn't where Shou had ever thought to spend the rest of his life, but he enjoyed it there.

Movement caught his eye and he turned his attention that way. Gyroid moved with him, and soon they hovered over what he'd seen. It was definitely a what – if only because he didn't think "who" qualified when one referred to zombies.

Shou frowned. "They shouldn't be here," he muttered to himself. Zombies weren't much for conversation so he didn't think he could ask what they were doing there. They hadn't noticed him but seemed targeted on something else altogether. Maybe they'd somehow wandered in from Decayed Commander's region?

If that were so then he should probably return them to Decayed Commander. He'd never met the zombie leader for their neighboring territory but Shou hoped he wasn't that bad of a person. Of a zombie. Whatever. The spirit zombies tended to be more intelligent than those made from humans. That would probably help.

"All right, let's get going!" Shou declared, tilting Gyroid downward. Gyroid obligingly pushed forward, tire-hands stretched out to shove at one zombie's shoulder. The zombie growled and raised one hand to push back, but Gyroid just pushed in return, then did the same thing to one of the others.

When they were turned the way that Shou wanted them to go, he leaned forward to where they could see him. Or smell him. Or whatever zombies did. "Come on! Follow me!"

The zombies focused on him, forgetting whatever it was that they'd been after, and reached towards him, moaning as if in anticipation of a good meal. Shou shuddered at the sight and kept going forward, not moving so fast that they were out of sight of the zombies, but not so slow that they were in danger of being caught.

Or that he was in danger of being caught. Zombies didn't eat metal so Gyroid would be safe. Gyroid could also get him out of there before he was in deep trouble.

Getting to Decayed Commander's territory took time. It had been perhaps eight or nine of the clock when he'd left the mansion and by the time midnight struck, they were just at the border. Finding someone who could take charge of these three zombies would be the extremely difficult part.

"Hello there."

A very ordinary and calm voice and Shou almost jumped out of his skin when he heard it. He whirled to see a man several years older than himself standing there. A bow and a quiver of arrows slung on his back, he offered a cheerful smile just visible in the starlight. His clothes put Shou in mind of what a hunter might wear, especially since he spied a few dried drops of blood here and there.

"Hi," Shou replied, not moving from on top of Gyroid. "I'm a little busy right now, honestly."

"So I see. Let me handle that." The stranger turned a firm gaze to the zombies, removing a small sphere from one pocket and holding it before him. "Go! Return to your homes and remain there until you're summoned!"

At once the three zombies turned and walked past him, paying no more attention to Shou or Gyroid or anything else, not even giving a hint that they might be hungry. The stranger kept the sphere held out until they were out of sight, then put it away as he turned his full attention back to Shou.

"Terribly sorry if those bothered you, good sir," the possible-hunter said with a courteous tilt of his head. "It can be difficult for even the strongest magic to control zombies at times."

Shou's skin crawled and he gripped Gyroid more tightly. "Who are you and how did you do that? I thought only a necromancer could command zombies."

"For the most part that's true. But I happen to know a clever necromancer, and I'm allied to Decayed Commander, who gives me free reign over his territory. So with the help of my crystal, the zombies will do as I tell them to do. It's truly difficult to keep them all going in the same direction at the same time." His eyes focused onto Shou. "And what is the brother of the vampire ruler of this territory doing here? Shouldn't you be at home?"

That sent even more of Shou's skin crawling. "How do you know who I am?"

"How could I not? I've never met your brother but I know this is his home and it's only wise to know the leaders of a place, even if they don't know you." The hunter smiled a smile that did nothing at all to ease Shou's worries. "Is something wrong? Is that why you're out here at this hour?"

Shou shook his head. He knew he should be grateful that the stranger had disposed of the zombies harmlessly, but he still couldn't get himself calmed down. The way the other stared at him, every word that he said flavored with a hint of mockery, as if he knew some great joke that Shou didn't have any idea about. None of it felt right at all and he refused to let his guard down. "I don't even know who you are. Why should I answer you?"

"Oh, that's very, very bad of me. I should have introduced myself." The hunter executed a very elaborate bow. "I really didn't mean to be in this area anyway. I took a shortcut while on the way to visit one of the mages on the other side of the mountain. But since I've encountered you, I'll tell you my name." His smile seemed to gleam in a way that made Shou wish he'd come armed with more than just his deck. "You may address me as Theron."

* * *

**To Be Continued**

**Notes:** Well, here Shou truly enters the story!


	16. Chapter 16

**Series:** World of Fusion||**Title:** War of the Undead  
**Characters:** Ryou, Assassin, Asuka||**Ship:** N/A  
**Chapters:** 16-50||**Chapter Words:** 3,036||**Total Words:** 49,117  
**Genre:** Drama, Supernatural||**Rated:** PG  
**Challenges:** Diversity Writing, GX: Fused World, L2, 2000-6000 wpc; One Character Boot Camp, Marufuji Ryou, #19, rebel; Include The Word, #47, multipy; Chapter Set Boot Camp, #24, 50 chapters; Advent 2015-2016, GX, bonus #1: roll for fic length: between 100,000-200,000 words; Christmas Advent 2017, New Year's Special, start a new fic and update it once a week; Epic Masterclass, YGO GX, #4, AU Space  
**Notes:** Same universe as **Raised To His Word** but featuring other characters. A little backstory will appear as well. Also, the character notes up top here will change depending on who is involved in each chapter.  
**Summary:** The first strike in war involves doing as much damage as you possibly can – such as taking one of your enemy's strongest warriors and using him to get the strongest weapons. Ryou never thought he'd enjoy being a vampire but this is a whole new level. Perhaps it's a good thing he has a teacher and some new friends to help him out.

* * *

Ryou could have flown. Doing so was well within the powers of a vampire. But instead he coursed over the ground, for the simple fact that he didn't want to risk leaving Assassin behind. He held no real friendship for the other, but he'd rather not risk what might happen if the two of them drew too far apart. With both Theron's orders and Noble D'Noir's mind control to work with, the results of that might not be pretty.

But Assassin could move every bit as swiftly as he could, and the two matched stride for stride as they moved down through the mountains and towards the far side of Sunsdown. Ryou took a single sniff of the air and frowned at the zombie stench. Not as thick as it had been when he'd been in the village itself, but some had to be in the area.

Enough so that while he didn't check his speed, he did watch every shadow for the slightest hint of the mindless undead. His fingers flexed; he still needed a good bath from the last time he'd shredded his way through a pack of them, but if they approached him now, he'd tear through them regardless.

Ahead now he could see faint hints of embers and a stronger scent assaulted his nostrils – raw meat and blood. Other scents lurked underneath it, traces of flame, burned wood, and scorched stone.

This was so close to where Sunsdown had been. He forced himself to keep going, when every instinct wanted him to stop and see if anyone here could be helped. They couldn't be – anyone who wasn't dead would be a zombie now. The only help he could give them would be to shred their bodies. He didn't want to waste time with that. The zombies would be there for another day.

Assassin leaped up on top of a rocky outcropping and stared around, as tense as Ryou had ever seen anyone before. Their clothes blended into the night all but invisibly, though to an undead – either zombie or vampire – their life essence would have drawn someone right to them. Ryou paused as well, not to draw breath but to reorient himself.

"This way," he murmured at last, once he knew where they were in relation to what had once been Sunsdown. That fountain would be on the far side, and there lay their best hope to learn where Teacher Samejima was and frustrate everyone else's plans as much as they could.

Or so Ryou hoped. He didn't have time to do what he really wanted and return to the mansion to update Shou. Captain Tesni would watch him; she'd been a good and loyal defender of the mansion for longer than he'd been the ruler there. But that would never stop Ryou from worrying even the tiniest bit.

Assassin nodded, falling back into stride with him. "Are you going to need to feed again?"

"Not yet." Draining that false priest dry would keep him going most of the night – or at least it would have if all he'd done would be stay in that cave until sunrise. Going around like this would put him in need of a meal much sooner.

He found himself hoping that whoever was in charge of the fountain would e a suitable meal. Or knew someone who wouldn't mind offering. He really did not want to experience what happened when he didn't feed for too long.

Doing that one time had been more than enough.

Together they moved through the night, far quicker than the human eye could have possibly followed. Every sense of Ryou's cut through the shadows, delivering information that told him more than he'd ever wanted to know – the presence of zombies, most of whom ignored him and the rest seemed stuck on matters of their own, a few trails of humans, fleeing from the hungry creatures and not succeeding very well at it, some tracks left by animals – all of it gave him a fairly reasonable picture of the area, even as he rushed through it.

"There is something I should warn you about the fountain," Assassin said as they grew closer to the spill of trees on Sunsdown's far side. "I hadn't thought about it before."

Ryou cocked one eyebrow in curiosity. Assassin looked ahead, though if he were trying to avoid Ryou's gaze or peer through the night Ryou couldn't be certain.

"The fountain is warded against the undead. Against zombies in particular that I know of, but I don't know if those wards will function against vampires."

That failed to surprise Ryou in any significant fashion. Despite the fact it was located in the territory that he claimed, he'd never so much as heard of this place. The wards would be very strong indeed.

He couldn't fret about that now though. Instead they kept on moving, and Ryou kept watch on all around him. The night filled with scents and sounds more than sights; most of those were harmless and he didn't need to think about them more than long enough to identify them and dismiss them. Flowers and blooming trees, a few fruits, the sound of water tumbling over rocks, birds singing in the trees and some of them talking to one another in low voices – those were likely spirit birds. They knew him, they'd not argue his right to be there.

Then he stopped. No, they wouldn't argue – and they could be useful.

Assassin glanced at him. "Something wrong?"

Ryou shook his head, listening with all of his strength until he caught the particular voice that he wanted. He'd _thought_ they were in this area, and now he could hopefully do what he wanted to do – albeit at a distance.

"Are you there, my friend?" He called out quietly. He made few friends among his own kind – human or vampire – far preferring the company of spirits if he had the option.

Deep in the depths of the trees he'd caught a faint glimpse of gleaming red and gold feathers. Mortal eyes couldn't see them as clearly as he could. But now the spirit bird came closer, coursing through the trees until Burning Bird landed on a tree branch not that far from him.

"Hell Kaiser." Burning Bird tilted their head towards him. "I hadn't thought you would be out here. Too many zombies in the area."

"I'm trying to deal with that. But I need a favor." Ryou offered his arm and burning Bird leaped down to perch on him, claws digging in. "Will you help me?"

"I will. What is it that you need?"

"Fly to the mansion. Warn Shou that there is someone named Theron who is attempting to stir up a war between zombies and vampires. I can't stop him right now but I need Shou to keep an eye out for danger. Warn him to also watch out for Noble D'Noir. I _really_ can't stop him." Ryou raised his free hand to his mouth for a moment. "Tell him whatever you've seen of the zombies approaching."

Burning Bird tilted their head again in a different way. "And should your brother not be there?"

For a single moment that confused Ryou. Why wouldn't Shou be at home? Then sense hit him. He'd been gone for over a day and a night and going into a second day. Shou would be out there looking for him.

"Then tell all of this to Tesni. And see if you can find Shou after that."

The great bird nodded at last. "If they have any messages to bring back, I'll find you. Where are you going?"

It was Assassin who answered that. "To the Fountain, where Izumi and Sienna live. It's the closest place that his teacher can be found."

Ryou nodded his affirmation. He would not ask Burning Bird to take any messages to the Cyber Dojo. It existed in the high mountains, up where it would not be comfortable for the gleaming bird of flame.

"All right." Burning Bird spread his wings, then looked back down at Ryou. "Watch for those zombies. The horde's getting thick and they ate almost all of Sunsdown."

Ryou frowned. "Almost?"

"I saw a few escaping. But I don't expect them to survive long."

"If you can guide any of them somewhere safe, do so," Ryou requested. "Any sort of help would be appreciated."

Burning Bird agreed with a nod of that sharp beak. "I'll be on my way." Bright wings spread and a breath later, he sprang into the sky, a trail of glitter following from his tail and wings. Within moments he faded out of sight altogether, soaring off in the direction of the mansion.

Ryou didn't watch the departure. He started again, turning over what little information Burning Bird had been able to tell him. A few survivors, nothing more, and the hordes getting stronger and stronger.

That was all Theron's doing, Ryou knew. He knew far too well what Theron's goals were – he didn't know who Theron was and why he wanted it. He hadn't made up his mind on if he cared, only so much as it would enable him to stop those plans. And stopping those also meant stopping Noble D'Noir.

_I need to find a way to send a message to Ruthven and Camula._ He didn't like them very much but he refused to simply let Noble D'Noir's plans go off without a hitch. Perhaps once Burning Bird came back, he'd be able to send him off again.

"That was an interesting friend you have there," Assassin said. "I've never met a spirit like that before."

"I met him shortly after I was assigned here," Ryou said, moving forward. "He and his family live in those woods." He nodded towards them; they were close to where he and Samejima had been before this whole mess got started. Under other circumstances, he might have asked Burning Bird to help them then.

Now he considered exactly how to send that message to his superiors. They would want to know about it – at the least they should know about the war brewing and start preparing for it. There would have to be a way to settle matters decided – either a proper duel or a genuine war between opposing forces. Ryou suspected that decision would be a duel. If it came to physical force, then half a dozen vampires at the peak of their strength could shred a thousand times their number in zombies.

_Zombies are caused either by other zombies or by necromancy,_ Ryou mused as he rushed along. _I wonder what would happen if we found the necromancer who raised most of these and … encouraged them to break the spell._

He liked the thought of that. It wouldn't be easy to make happen. Necromancer magic could work on vampires as few could. Not every necromancy spell, of course, but a great many of them, and there were many necromancers who hired, trained, and supplied vampire hunters as well.

Vampires had their own allies, of course. Shadow mages and a few of the darker angelic types frequently strode into battle against them.

It would also give him a reasonable excuse to meet with Yuusuke again, should such a gathering be required. It had been over a year since they'd last encountered one another and Ryou did not want to admit that he'd missed his old friend.

He refused to admit that he missed Fubuki as well. Fubuki, who came and went like the waves he loved to surf, and who wandered all the land crafting songs about what he saw and heard. Ryou's lips twitched into a hint of a smile.

_He'd love this._ An epic war between two types of undead? Fubuki would stand on the sidelines, watch it all, and take notes to create a song out of nothingness. And if anyone grew too near him, then his Red Eyes Black Dragon would protect him.

Perhaps he'd send a message to them as well. They knew what had happened to him but their own lives kept them busy to the point the three of them couldn't be as close as they'd been in years gone by. Perhaps this could be a time to change that.

Ahead something moved in the starlight. Ryou stopped, tense. He could tell right away that this wasn't a zombie. He could recognize a zombie from the stench and the way that they moved and this person moved like a living person. Even more, they moved like a warrior, cautious and on guard.

Assassin eyed the movement ahead as well, one hand twitching a fraction, a sharp blade appearing in his hand. Without a single word, he cast it forward, the knife flying point first to whoever it was in front of them. For most people this would have come out of the night, far too quickly for them to counter or avoid.

This stranger instead deftly dodged out of the way and wrapped one hand around the knife's hilt, catching it. They turned it, examined it, and then a woman's voice spoke from the shadows.

"Is this always how you greet strangers in this territory?"

Something about the voice touched the edges of familiarity with Ryou. When he turned his full attention towards her, all he could see was a shape wrapped in a hooded cloak. The wind blew the wrong way for him to get a proper scent of her, and what little he could gather he wasn't certain about. He did, however, catch the hint of concealing magic. Someone didn't want to be known for who they were.

"Only on certain occasions," he said at last. "But what are strangers who hide themselves so well doing here at all?"

"My job. Or seeking to do it, if I can find the one I was sent to observe."

Assassin said nothing, but he carried knives in both hands now and waited, head tilted towards Ryou. Ryou searched his memory, trying to remember where he'd smelled or heard someone like this before.

"And who might that be?"

He could feel himself regarded by a pair of very serious eyes. "I wonder if you might know them – vampire. I was sent to observe the archer Theron, for the sake of his lord Zombie Master."

Ryou would have sworn, if he could have found language strong enough to vent his feelings. He remembered now what Assassin told him – that a warrior would come to observe Theron. Apparently they'd now found that warrior.

"He's not here," Assassin said. "You'll have better luck going towards the mountains. He'll likely be around there closer to sunrise."

The warrior moved forward. "And you would be?" Her every step told of her training and that she didn't trust either of them. Ryou awarded her at least one mental point for that. No one should trust anyone that they met in the dark of the night.

What bothered him more than anything was the fact that she still seemed familiar, though he couldn't put a face or a name to her. He wanted to. He felt like he _should_.

He started to move to the side, to let her pass. By the time that they returned to the cave, she might be closer – not there, but closer. Vampires could move far faster than humans, even well-trained ones like this.

But as the two of them passed one another, his nostrils caught a full whiff of her and he stopped in his tracks, staring back at her.

"Asuka?"

At the utterance, the warrior turned, all of her muscles tense and hard. She likely couldn't see him all that well; no humans had a vampire's sight after dark.

Then she raised one hand to tug her hood down and he saw her full face. Somewhat more slender and more mature than the last time he'd seen her. Underneath the cloak he caught a faint whiff of fine leather armor. The cloak concealed a great deal of her from him, including, he realized, her scent. A well-made creation of magic, he thought. One hand fell to a blade he'd noticed at her hip, until her eyes focused more clearly on him, then widened.

"Ryou?"

Assassin's gaze flickered between the two of them. "I presume that you know one another?"

"Yes." Ryou answered. He wasn't going to say how as of yet. Assassin was a reluctant ally at best. His own eyes narrowed. Just because he'd known her when they were children didn't mean she remained a friend. "Are you working for the zombie lords?" He wanted to be certain she was the one he'd been told of before he made any decisions on what to do.

She frowned, arms crossing over her chest. "I'd heard the stories about you – changing. I didn't know if I should believe them or not."

He waited for the proper answer to his question, one eyebrow raised just the tiniest fraction, enough to let her know that he waited. She regarded him for a few more moments.

"They hired me to check on Theron," she admitted. "Supposedly -" Her words broke off and she frowned, the grip of her hand on her blade's hilt tightening. "They're looking for Principal Samejima, aren't they?" Every word she spoke came out laced with suppress rage – and not very well suppressed, either. She'd never enjoyed being deceived, he recalled. Some things clearly never changed.

"Why do you say that?" Ryou asked, probing with great caution. He would have much preferred her as an ally rather than an enemy, but no one could be certain which way some people might turn.

Asuka's lips thinned. "What I was told was that Theron was in search of someone who guarded a set of demons and might let them out at the wrong time. Someone who had a vampire servant as well, that Theron looked to capture." She shook her head. "You tell me what's really going on."

Ryou glanced towards the sky, judging the passage of time. "Can you keep up with us?" He asked. "Because that is a long story and we don't have a great deal of time to waste."

* * *

**To Be Continued**

**Notes:** Yes, I've known Asuka was the warrior sent to check on Theron since I first mentioned it.


	17. Chapter 17

**Series:** World of Fusion||**Title:** War of the Undead  
**Characters:** Ryou, Assassin, Asuka||**Ship:** N/A  
**Chapters:** 17-50||**Chapter Words:** 3,048||**Total Words:** 52,165  
**Genre:** Drama, Supernatural||**Rated:** PG  
**Challenges:** Diversity Writing, GX: Fused World, L2, 2000-6000 wpc; One Character Boot Camp, Marufuji Ryou, #19, rebel; Include The Word, #47, multiply; Chapter Set Boot Camp, #24, 50 chapters; Advent 2015-2016, GX, bonus #1: roll for fic length: between 100,000-200,000 words; Christmas Advent 2017, New Year's Special, start a new fic and update it once a week; Epic Masterclass, YGO GX, #4, AU Space  
**Notes:** Same universe as **Raised To His Word** but featuring other characters. A little backstory will appear as well. Also, the character notes up top here will change depending on who is involved in each chapter.  
**Summary:** The first strike in war involves doing as much damage as you possibly can – such as taking one of your enemy's strongest warriors and using him to get the strongest weapons. Ryou never thought he'd enjoy being a vampire but this is a whole new level. Perhaps it's a good thing he has a teacher and some new friends to help him out.

* * *

Samejima hadn't ever had a lot of help. He taught students at his Dojo and he spread tales of the old world so that it would never be forgotten but there were few enough who listened, since those who'd survived the unsettled years after the Great Fusion preferred to focus on what was rather than to relive the fanciful tales of days gone by. Training duelists truly felt as if he made more of a difference.

But now out of nowhere, he had help. Sienna and Izumi, O'Brien and Jim, Nero and Fairy Dragon, all of them gave their help to get this situation sorted, without asking for anything, simply because he needed it, and because no one wanted a world totally run by zombies or vampires. Those had a place in the world but it wasn't as the rulers of the world.

He would return to the Cyber Dojo soon and select the person who would carry on his work from here. He'd considered more than once that Ryou would be the one, but now that he knew of the other's nature as a vampire – no, it wouldn't be him. Ryou had other duties in his life now.

_But who?_ He considered all of his students. For the most part, whoever won the Cyber End Dragon had been considered the heir. Not every time, but those who showed the proper principles of respectful dueling. Dueling hadn't always been the focus of the dojo, or the guarding of the Sangenma, but that was the form most necessary now, so that was what he took into account. He would need an heir who could work in this new world.

Did he need to _not_ look at humans? So far there had only been human users of the Cyber style. But he wasn't dead yet. He was still the head of the Dojo. He had time to train a successor once he chose them and it was not out of the picture for whoever he chose to be a spirit of some sort.

A person who exemplified the essence of being a respectful duelist someone who would be able to train others in that style – who would be able to protect the Sangenma – and who would not fall prey to the call of the dark side of the style. That, too, he worried about – the under side of the Cyber style that whispered from their hiding place. They seldom spoke, though their voices grew louder in the five decades since the Great Fusion.

He would return to the Dojo and inspect the students he already had, he decided, and choose whoever he saw was best from there. He'd been one of three potential successors when his time came as a boy and he could do the same now, picking a handful of potential people and once the time came, then choose from that.

It was the best that he could do for a choice at the moment. With that taken care of, he turned his full attention back to the meal before him. Everyone else sat around the table, Jim and O'Brien catching up in detail what happened since the last time they'd seen one another, while Nero and Fairy Dragon chatted quietly together. They would spend who knew how long out there together, so it was best that they get to know one another in a quiet setting.

Sienna and Izumi watched the table; he gathered that they hadn't had very many people here at the same time in far longer than they remembered. Izumi's grin lit up her face, while Sienna stroked her jar and fed bits of food to her great dragon friend. He, apparently, had eaten while he was out recruiting Jim, and needed little more than a few bites to fill little bits and pieces.

His eyes flicked over the great dragon that he would be riding in the near future. Both of them decided that the trip would be taken in the morning – while it was the best time for Nero and Fairy Dragon to search for Ryou, the dragon and Samejima himself needed proper rest. His wounds had more or less healed with the help of Izumi, but he wasn't as young as he'd once been. If he waited for morning, it would be easier to detect zombies anyway.

He nibbled at his dinner, turning more of his attention to Nero as the boy explained what had happened to him and his family to Fairy Dragon. The zombies could not be allowed to do this to more people. At least vampires could be reasoned with and they were _civilized_. Zombies, not so much.

"The vampires rule this area," Samejima said at last, piecing together a thought that occurred to him. Everyone's attention turned to him as he spoke. "We need to send a message to their headquarters, perhaps even to Lord Ruthven and Lady Camula." They, at least, should know that Ryou was in danger. He hadn't heard all of Ryou's story, but these two were some of the few allowed by vampire law to turn humans. They would need to know.

O'Brien tapped a finger on the table. "I can take a message to both of those places, if I have a way to get to them."

Jim raised his hand. "You've got a way. Just tell me how to get there and we'll be there before dawn."

"Is it safe to go driving at night?" Samejima wondered. He'd seen the little buggy that Jim drove and while it wasn't the sort of thing that he recalled from the world before the fusion, it was a very sturdy device indeed. But with zombies to deal with, what one needed was speed far more than sturdiness.

That only got a soft laugh from Jim. "Shouldn't be a problem at all! What do you want to tell them when we get there?"

"And who will we find at the headquarters here?" O'Brien waned to know. Samejima considered that, then blinked as a stray comment dropped by Ryou returned to his awareness.

"That I can't be sure of now – Ryou told me that this was his territory. If he meant that he's the local vampire ruler, then we may not find anyone there at all."

That worried him. He realized now how little he knew about what Ryou's life was like now. What had ever happened to Ryou's family? He'd heard stories about his student's younger brother – Shou, wasn't that his name? He also played a Machine deck, but not the Cyber style. Though if Samejima knew anything at all about Ryou, he'd done his best to impress the styles of respect into his brother.

Perhaps this Shou might be worth entertaining as a potential successor. Samejima wasn't going to turn the thought down, not until he knew if the young man was available or not. A point to bring up to Ryou when they rescued him. Which he refused to think would not happen.

Jim nodded. "We can check and see. Maybe someone else there can give some help. They might have a way to contact the big vampire leaders a lot faster than we can. Or something to get rid of all the zombies in a second." The flicker of a smile on his lips said that he didn't quite believe that but a little humor never hurt.

O'Brien worked on the rest of his meal before he spoke again. "How are Nero and Fairy Dragon going to recognize this vampire when they see him?"

"He's quite tall," Samejima said, considering. "He wears a black leather jacket, very long, and black clothes underneath it. His hair is a deep blue and his eyes are a bit lighter blue. He's pale, of course, and he looks about seventeen. Though I believe he's actually a little older than you two." He nodded towards the two young men. "If he has his deck with him, he plays a Cyber deck. His most favored spirit is Cyber End Dragon, but there are many other Cyber types that he uses."

Nero practically drank in every word that he spoke. "I can find him! I won't come back until we do!"

Fairy Dragon bobbed her head eagerly. "Yeah! Neither will I!"

Sienna reached out to touch Fairy Dragon's head with her fingers. "Don't push yourself too hard. It will be dangerous to seek a vampire that is being held captive like this. Vampires can't be restrained by just anything. Only their weakness to the sun can truly keep them ensnared."

"There are some magics that can do it as well," Samejima mused. "Anything that can negate powers can do it and there are unfortunately plenty of those." Too many mages, too many spells, too many items that could seal away someone's power. If someone wished to wage war against the vampires, then having such items and people on their side would be a wise move.

He considered other points about this whole situation. "Most zombies don't care anything about war or territory," he said at last. "Zombies are weapons, not warriors. Even those who are spirits prefer to remain in their own territory and feeding on the unwary." There were more than enough of those to keep the mindless undead satisfied without a war or whatever else was going on. "Someone else is using them for this."

O'Brien considered that before he nodded slowly. "I wouldn't even be certain if anyone I saw in Sunsdown would be the person in charge. Likely what I saw was only servants, or servants of servants."

"Zombies are usually brought around by other zombies or by necromancers," Jim said, his eye thoughtful. Samejima remained curious about what had happened to his other eye but he let his curiosity remain dormant for the moment. There would be time later to ask. "Who do we know who could have created thee hordes?"

"Most of them seem made by the zombie spirits," Samejima offered. "But I believe the closest zombie spirit is Decayed Commander. Whether he knows what's going on, I don't know."

"It's not wise to go into enemy territory without proper information," O'Brien declared. "Let's stick to the vampires until we can learn more from Marufuji Ryou."

No one wanted to argue the point right now. Samejima cleaned up the last of his plate and stared at it for a few moments. What he wanted to do most of all was think of the days of his youth, when this hadn't been a problem. When vampires and zombies were works of fiction and nothing more.

'Teacher Samejima, sir?" Nero spoke, his voice quivering a bit. "My grandpa – he would tell me stories about how the world was like before. Do you – do you know any stories from then?"

Samejima blinked a few times. He hadn't ever imagined a question like that. Few people asked after the tales of the old world, though some would listen.

"Yes. Yes, I do." He glanced at the others. He knew quite well that not everyone would appreciate these stories.

But Jim looked fascinated and O'Brien merely nodded. Sienna shrugged her shoulders, while Izumi leaned forward. "It's probably not a good idea to go rushing off right after dinner," she offered. "Tell a story to let our minds rest before we have to begin this war."

O'Brien rose before Samejima could utter a word. "First let's clean this off," he said, gesturing to the table. "Tales are told better over a fire regardless."

With all of them to help it didn't take long to get everything put away and the table wiped down, then chairs pulled up before the flickering fire set to one side of the fountain. The weather here remained clear and flawless, perfect for being seated before the fire and the telling of old tales. Samejima considered many before he decided.

"This is the tale of the Great Fusion itself, or what I heard of it. I wasn't there when it happened. Few who are alive today are, because what caused the Great Fusion was powered by the deaths of many. Brron, the Mad King, slaughtered untold numbers to gain that power and then out of lust for more power he fused all twelve dimensions that existed in that era into one.

"In those days, the civilization of humans lived in a world that had either no spirits or few indeed. If there were any there, almost no one could see or hear them. Tales were told of ghosts and the like, but even fewer believed in them. There was so little true magic that whatever existed fell into myths and legends of their own. We had an entire world to ourselves and thought we were the ultimate masters of it and that nothing would ever change that."

He sipped at a cup of flavored water he'd saved, fingers curved around the carved wood. He'd been so young then. Everyone had been young. No one knew.

"In those days, I lived at the Cyber Dojo. Dueling wasn't an art then – it hadn't even been invented. We don't know if it ever would have been. But life was good in many ways." He vividly recalled ways in which it hadn't been so good – ways that seemed so far away now, old hates and prejudices that had fallen by the wayside in the far more immediate necessities of survival.

"It was October 31. A day once celebrated as having the barriers between lie and death at their thinnest. We thought nothing much of it before that time, but at dawn on that day, the world changed forever – it ceased to exist. There was light and noise – the sounds of screams that went on forever." His fingers tightened more around his cup. "All over the world shook. We didn't know for years afterward exactly what happened, only that there were earthquakes and tidal waves – great cities fell into holes that hadn't existed before then or were swallowed by the waves."

He swallowed. He didn't know if this was the story that Nero wanted to hear, but there were always tales whose time had come to tell. The boy seemed as fascinated as if this were what he'd asked for specifically. So Samejima kept on going.

"No one knows how many people lost their lives – only too many. But not just humans, we found out later. There were many people from many other worlds who perished. And in the wake of those deaths there came winter, starvation and war. Those who survived fought to take and keep resources for themselves, to learn the ways of the world as it was now."

Samejima wasn't certain of how lucky he'd been in those days. He'd survived Fusion Day itself – that was what it was called now, not Halloween, even by those who maintained the old calendars – and there had been hungry years afterward, until people caught the trick of how matters worked now. New crops that needed to be sown and tended and harvested, hunters learning the difference between spirit animals that could be as intelligent as humans and animals that could be killed and eaten, and the slow growth of magic throughout the world.

"Spirits came as well," he remembered, "they told us what happened, speaking of Brron and what he intended. Some sought to bring the remaining people under his rule, and humans everywhere resisted."

Truthfully, Samejima knew that wasn't completely true. Brron's recruiters took back many people who hadn't been making a very good show of surviving on their own. Some of them had been the wealthy and elite of the world past, who were profoundly unsuited to life without servants to wait on them. Some of those did manage to adapt – he'd heard tales of a group of brothers who'd managed to manage nicely enough – but there were other tales of wealth gone forever and those who'd had it reduced to servitude themselves.

"Other spirits offered help or required help themselves, and new communities began to form, of spirits and humans alike. The world belonged to both now." Samejima's lips curved for a few seconds. "Though there were many of both types who did not like this fact. If there had been more of each there may have been far more wars than there were – or are. But perhaps all that happened was for the best in some fashion, because those communities that worked together became better for it. They were able to protect what was theirs from those who would steal it and they could provide for others, which gave them far more resources to work with, and the wisdom of their elders as the years went on."

He stopped there; Nero's eyes slid closed and he rested against Fairy Dragon, whose own eyes were also shut. That he wasn't surprised about. He intended to rest himself, after all. Nero had been through a night nearly as rough as those he'd known.

"He can rest for a couple of hours," Sienna said, scooping Nero up. "But if you want him to hunt for that vampire, he'll need all of his strength."

"We have time. Though not much of it," O'Brien said. He rose to his feet. "My parents told me a few stories that their parents mentioned about what happened back then."

"So did mine," Jim agreed. He said nothing else about it, but Samejima saw a quiet, shadowed look pass over his features. The expression was only there for a few moments before it vanished and he couldn't be certain he'd really seen it at all. "But we should get going, my friend. The vampires won't appreciate it if we start knocking on their doors after sunrise."

O'Brien nodded, turning toward Izumi and Sienna. "Thank you for your hospitality. May we ask it of you again in the future? This place's wards make it a very good place to muster against zombies."

"Of course," Izumi agreed. Sienna didn't look quite so thrilled, but she said nothing to deny her sister's words. "Please return as soon as you can."

The great dragon nudged his head against Samejima. "Are you ready, Guardian?"

Samejima pulled in a long, deep breath as he stood up as well. "Yes. Let's go."

* * *

**To Be Continued**

**Notes:** I've already decided on Samejima's heir. That will be settled closer to the end of the story. I also intend to one day write the full tale of the Great Fusion itself. Or at least as much as I can. Imagine your average disaster movie but including the survival afterwards. There are ruins left over from how the world was before, and we might even visit some in future installments of the series!


	18. Chapter 18

**Series:** World of Fusion||**Title:** War of the Undead  
**Characters:** Asuka, Ryou, Assassin, Noble D'Noir, Immortal Ruler||**Ship:** N/A  
**Chapters:** 18-50||**Chapter Words:** 3,015||**Total Words:** 55,180  
**Genre:** Drama, Supernatural||**Rated:** PG  
**Challenges:** Diversity Writing, GX: Fused World, L2, 2000-6000 wpc; One Character Boot Camp, Marufuji Ryou, #19, rebel; Include The Word, #47, multipy; Chapter Set Boot Camp, #24, 50 chapters; Advent 2015-2016, GX, bonus #1: roll for fic length: between 100,000-200,000 words; Christmas Advent 2017, New Year's Special, start a new fic and update it once a week; Epic Masterclass, YGO GX, #4, AU Space  
**Notes:** Same universe as **Raised To His Word** but featuring other characters. A little backstory will appear as well. Also, the character notes up top here will change depending on who is involved in each chapter.  
**Summary:** The first strike in war involves doing as much damage as you possibly can – such as taking one of your enemy's strongest warriors and using him to get the strongest weapons. Ryou never thought he'd enjoy being a vampire but this is a whole new level. Perhaps it's a good thing he has a teacher and some new friends to help him out.

* * *

Asuka kept up with them. Ryou wasn't certain of how but he suspected whatever magics imbued her cloak also had something to do with it. Or at least the cloak concealed what those magics might be. That meant that he could catch her up on what was going on – what he knew about what was going on – without losing that much ground.

"So Theron is searching for something to keep your powers in check," Asuka mused, her strides perhaps not quite as long as Ryou's but still keeping up. Her lips twisted into an expression that wasn't a smile. "I was told that he hadn't captured you yet and to be certain if he did, to have you brought to Zombie Master."

Ryou's fingers flexed and he looked forward to finding a stream that he could take the time to wash himself in. The remains of zombies were never pleasant to get rid of, but often necessary.

"What are you going to do?"

Asuka didn't answer right away. When she did, her words were thoughtful. "I'll watch him for now but I won't turn you over to them." Her eyes hardened with every word she spoke. "I know they hate Camula. I'm not giving them something they can hurt someone else. Especially not you."

Assassin's gaze flickered between the two of them, the tiniest of tilts to his head. Ryou could see the confusion there but said nothing. He had much more on his mind to deal with.

"Where are you going?" Asuka asked, turning her gaze to their surroundings. They'd made it through the forested area and now the plains lay before them, swift running and somewhere ahead, a fountain that Ryou hoped would hold friends.

He gestured ahead. "Have you seen a walled fountain?"

"I saw a walled area," Asuka agreed with a nod of her head. 'But I didn't stop there. I was trying to make the mountains as fast as I could."

"Which way?" He trusted Assassin only for certain things. He hadn't yet decided if giving accurate directions would be included in those. Asuka, on the other hand, he trusted somewhat more.

Asuka turned her attention out to the plains, then nodded in the way they were going. "This way. We're on the right track for it."

He cast a glance towards Assassin, who agreed with a quick tilt of his own head. If need be, he knew he could abandon them both to find his way on his own. For now, he wouldn't.

For a few more minutes they kept on going, until Ryou expressed the thought that flickered in the back of his head almost since the moment he'd realized who they'd encountered.

"The last that I'd heard, you'd fostered with the Amazons. Fubuki told me when I saw him last that you took up being a mercenary."

Asuka's lips twitched for a second. "I did. It pays the bills." She shrugged. "I haven't seen Fubuki for a while. I should send him a letter."

"He's traveling. He claims that he's a modern day bard." Ryou smiled a touch at the memory of the last time they'd crossed paths. Fubuki spent a great deal of time traveling and he made a note to let him talk to Samejima at his first opportunity. The old man would appreciate someone who could memorize all of the stories of the world that had been.

Thoughts of Fubuki inexorably led to thoughts of Fujiwara Yuusuke, which sparked a soft glow of warmth in what had once been his beating heart. Being a vampire – especially a turned one – didn't really lend itself to thoughts of romance very often, but there were occasionally moments. He looked forward to the next time he would be able to speak to the shadow mage. Perhaps he'd see if he could get Yuusuke's help to getting this situation sorted out.

Then another thought occurred, that had nothing to do with Yuusuke. "Asuka," he said, picking out his words with care, "is Zombie Master the one controlling this situation?" He knew Theron wasn't. This was too widespread for such a small-minded fool. Though he strongly suspected that Theron wanted to be a lot more relevant than he was.

"I can't be sure," Asuka replied at once. "I honestly haven't heard much about what's going on to start with. I think that's why they hired me. Someone who didn't know about anything Theron had in mind."

He had to hope that her differing loyalties wouldn't affect her future job prospects. He made a note at once to see to it that it didn't. Perhaps she'd like to meet Captain Tesni. The two would make fine sparring partners, if nothing else.

Assassin politely cleared his throat. "There." He indicated with a jerk of his head and Ryou saw what he meant on the horizon. At first he couldn't tell it apart from a few other stands of woodlands, but the closer they grew, the more that particular area became well defined as a set of walls instead of trees. Even at this range, he could sense the wards, strong and well maintained and _old_. Older than the Great Fusion, he realized. He couldn't pin down a specific span of time, but he wondered if those wards could be older than Camula and Ruthven themselves.

At this distance the wards did nothing to him. But as they grew closer, he could feel them tingling against his skin, brushing through the parts of him that were undead – which was all of him.

The closer they got, the more Ryou could see. The walls rose up high, shining pale in the starlight, and they circled around until they saw the gates. They saw something else as well – a great dragon that lay curled outside the gates, nose touching to tail, quietly breathing, perhaps taking a nap.

Ryou hadn't ever seen a dragon before, at least not like this. He'd seen his Cyber Dragons plenty of times, but not a dragon of flesh and blood. As they came closer, the dragon raised up a spiked head and turned glowing coal like eyes on them.

"Who are you?" The dragon leaned forward to sniff. "Oh. You're a vampire."

Ryou came to a halt, crossing his arms over his chest as he did. "I am. Is this the holy fountain?"

"Yes, it is," the dragon breathed in again. "Two humans and a vampire. Are you the student of Samejima that he worries about?"

Ryou tensed at once, fingers tightening into fists. "I suppose I am. Is he here?"

"He's asleep right now. They all are – it's very late, you know." Again the dragon leaned forward, eyes darting from one to another of them. "You won't be able to enter the fountain's walls until dawn. Perhaps not even then. They have many tasks to start at dawn, to settle this war as quickly as they can."

Ryou wasn't much for breathing in relief but he did so now anyway. "What are they planning to do?"

The dragon didn't answer right away. Instead, he stared thoughtfully at the three of them. "Why should I tell you? I know who _you_ are – or who you say you are. But who are these two? I'd rather not tell secrets that you have no need to know."

Ryou gesture to Assassin. "This is Assassin. He is my – companion and guard for now." He nodded towards Asuka. "This is Asuka, an old friend of mine from when we were children together. I am Marufuji Ryou – student of Samejima and Childe of Lady Camula and Lord Ruthven."

Assassin stepped forward. "You may address me as Assassin, of the Clan of the same name. I've been paid to guard the vampire Ryou and will allow no harm to come to him."

Asuka moved up on Ryou's other side. She met the dragon's eyes as if she'd encountered creatures like this every day of her life, not a trace of fear or worry. There were few indeed who could gaze at a dragon like that. He wondered how some others he knew would react to this.

"Tenjoin Asuka, known among my Amazon Clan as Amazon Warrior, a mercenary by trade, hired to observe events by a fool who will be getting far more than he bargains with once I learn what I can of what's really going on in this war."

The dragon observed each one of them, eyes moving from person to person, gazing deep into their eyes before going on to the next. Ryou thought that he looked far more satisfied than he had before. "I still can't open the gates for you. Only Izumi or Sierra can do that, and they're asleep right now. However, I can provide a safe place for you to stay if you're still here at sunrise, until you can get inside."

Ryou shook his head. "I can't stay that long." All the orders that he had – which he was compelled to obey regardless of his personal desires- pulled him back to that cave the closer it grew to sunrise. To add to that, he didn't want to wake them up. Whatever they had in mind – whoever it was – they would need all of their rest to deal with this war. The other two couldn't stay either; they both had to remain with him. He glanced to the set of the stars, feeling so much energy washing away as he realized all over again how far apart he stood from the people he'd once lived with. The simple cycle of day and night kept them apart now.

He made up his mind. "Will you send them a message for me, then? I have a diamond in my possession that you can have for it." Dragons adored treasure, he knew, and he'd received this in trade a few months earlier. He had little need for it, at least until now.

The dragon leaned forward, a rush of warm air crossing Ryou as the great beast breathed in interest. "And what might this message be?"

* * *

Noble D'Noir strolled into the throne room, trying not to breathe very hard. That wasn't much of a problem, since he didn't need to breathe to start with. He simply went out of his way to ensue that everyone around _knew_ he wasn't breathing right now.

After all, he hated being surrounded by zombies, and what else would he find in the court of the greatest zombie monarch than plenty of zombies.

This person here was to Zombie Master what Zombie Master was to many of the lesser zombies. Rumor had it that it was this one who had raised Zombie Master himself, long and long ago, long before the Great Fusion.

Noble D'Noir's lip curled at the thought of _that_ travesty. He'd worked toward his goal for nearly a thousand years before Brron produced his Super Fusion and changed the destinies of the twelve dimensions for all time. If Noble D'Noir could, he would gladly have laid Brron's throat bare to the bone.

He hadn't exactly given up the thought, if it came to that. But first he wanted a great deal more force to wield. He'd made plans that involved Brron's two adopted children. How the old fool would react to see them bled dry and biting, _Noble D'Noir's_ children instead of his -

Well, that thought sweetened the vampire's dreams for over ten years now. He would find a way to bring it to fruition.

But that would come later. After he'd settled this little situation between the zombies and vampires.

He strolled his way across the faintly molding pale red carpet that led to where Immortal Ruler sat on his throne. Everything to do with zombies had a strong tendency to rot, which made Noble D'Noir all the more pleased that in his case, breathing was optional. He really didn't know how the living necromancers could accept such stench.

But then he stood before the zombie monarch and tilted his head in the gesture common to rulers. "So wonderful to see you again, old friend," he purred. "I've quite been anticipating my return to your _lovely_ halls."

Immortal Ruler turned his skeletal head towards him. IF there had been flesh on his skin, Noble D'Noir suspected there would have been a true expression of mocking there. The zombie did his best even without that.

"What do you want?" He rasped out, the words shaped by magic instead of a tongue that he didn't possess. Noble D'Noir waved one hand casually.

"I just wanted to inform you that matters are going on as we expect. Theron is being an absolute idiot who thinks that he can command a true vampire child of Camula and Ruthven without them ending up sharing his blood and probably burning him at the stake later. Zombie Master still thinks that he's in charge. I don't suppose you intend to tell him otherwise?"

Immortal Ruler made a sound that could have been a laugh if it came from lungs that worked. "Why would I? He's more useful when he thinks that he's working for himself." Now he bent his attention more thoroughly onto Noble D'Noir. "I will presume that _your_ plans are also going as you wish."

"They are, they are," Noble D'Noir gestured and a chair that had been set against the far wall scampered over to him. He dusted it off before settling down; he used this chair whenever he visited Immortal Ruler and he knew very well that all of the zombies here were under orders not to touch it. But he always checked for filth before he sat down in it. Better safe than sorry in his opinion.

He tilted his head back in thought. "I have Theron's death already arranged for. He'll be useful for a while yet and he won't see what I have planned coming. He's too arrogant, and too busy right now." A little breath of a chuckle slipped through his lips. "But my plans don't require him."

He leaned forward. "I do have something that I will require a little assistance of yours for, however."

"Speak." Immortal Ruler gave him a careful look. "And speak quickly."

"Why, it's not like either of us is going to die any time soon," Noble D'Noir pointed out before he started to dig into his cloak. He produced a dueling deck with an elaborate flourish, presenting it to Immortal Ruler. "I took this off of a dead body. It belongs, however, to that spawn of Camula's."

Immortal Ruler gave it a look. "A deck with strong spirits," he acknowledged, mot moving to touch it. Anyone with eyes – and some without – could tell very clearly that the Cyber Dragons weren't happy at all. Without Ryou there they couldn't properly manifest but their rage glowed clear regardless.

"And I want it taken back to where Camula and Ruthven can find it. Or some servant of theirs; I'm not that particular. I want them to know that their precious Child doesn't have his deck anymore. I would prefer they found it in the grip of one of your lesser zombies." He tapped a finger on the side of his face. "I believe there's a nice thriving zombie spirit village a fair distance that way?" He gestured with his free hand; the place that he had in mind would be miles of travel away from Ryou's proper range. That would throw another veil of confusion to those who found the deck.

"Of course there are. There are several." Immortal Ruler gave him another one of those looks.

Noble D'Noir lounged backwards in his chair. It really needed to be properly reupholstered and possibly a few cushions added. Or even remade into a proper throne. Eventually, he reassured himself. "Well, pick one of them. Send someone towards Camula's place. I doubt they'll get there in one piece so make sure it isn't someone that you want back." He snickered. "I'd suggest Zombie Master but I don't think that would work very well."

Immortal Ruler took the deck and flickered through the cards curiously. Unlike his head, his hands contained skin and muscle – though it was pale green skin, which Noble D'Noir didn't think belonged to many people. He hadn't yet decided if he counted Immortal Ruler as people, though. Useful – but not people.

"Strong spirits indeed," he murmured, before he gestured to one of his servants – a red and white fox creature that bore nine magnificent tails. "Take this away. I'll decide who to give it to later." He turned another look towards Noble D'Noir. "You need not know who."

Noble D'Noir just waved one casual hand. "Of course." It would be far better if he didn't. Questions could be so cumbersome, especially ones that he didn't already have the answers set out to. "Now, are you going to offer me a meal or do I have to go hunt one for myself?" As if he'd hunt anywhere in the realm of zombies. They never kept any good food around and even if they'd tried, it would have mildewed within the first few days. Zombies ate the living. They didn't feel a need to tend to anything for their own.

Which was, of course, why they would never be a force in this new world, and had once had only a small part of one of the dimensions to themselves. They'd served many different rulers across the dimensions and only in the last handful of years had they begun to carve a realm of their own.

Noble D'Noir didn't intend to let that last for long. Zombies shouldn't get above themselves. So he would see to it they led themselves to their own downfall and that would lead to his own victory over Camula and Ruthven – and then Brron, and whatever other realm rulers he could dominate. If he couldn't rule the entire world, then he'd rule the most significant portion of it that he could, and he would do it for the rest of his extremely long existence.

* * *

**To Be Continued**

**Notes:** Next chapter we go back to Shou and Theron. I have Plans – that may take a while to come out because of Things I will explain in chapter 19's notes.


	19. Chapter 19

**Series:** World of Fusion||**Title:** War of the Undead  
**Characters:** Theron (OC), Shou, Ayaka (OC), & Nou (OC)||**Ship:** N/A  
**Chapters:** 19-50||**Chapter Words:** 3,015||**Total Words:** 55,180  
**Genre:** Drama, Supernatural||**Rated:** PG  
**Challenges:** Diversity Writing, GX: Fused World, L2, 2000-6000 wpc; One Character Boot Camp, Marufuji Ryou, #19, rebel; Include The Word, #47, multipy; Chapter Set Boot Camp, #24, 50 chapters; Advent 2015-2016, GX, bonus #1: roll for fic length: between 100,000-200,000 words; Christmas Advent 2017, New Year's Special, start a new fic and update it once a week; Epic Masterclass, YGO GX, #4, AU Space  
**Notes:** Same universe as **Raised To His Word** but featuring other characters. A little backstory will appear as well. Also, the character notes up top here will change depending on who is involved in each chapter.  
**Summary:** The first strike in war involves doing as much damage as you possibly can – such as taking one of your enemy's strongest warriors and using him to get the strongest weapons. Ryou never thought he'd enjoy being a vampire but this is a whole new level. Perhaps it's a good thing he has a teacher and some new friends to help him out.

* * *

Theron wanted to laugh so very much. How could he not have something to laugh about? His plans to ensnare the bloodsucker's brother and use him to pressure the bloodsucker had been more or less in the back of his mind. He'd entertained the thought of getting a fresh zombie horde – there were a half dozen villages within the area that could be used as fodder – and using that to besiege the mansion. He'd originally thought about doing so once he had the bloodsucker collared. It certainly would have been fascinating to watch Marufuji's reaction to his home being burned and every one of his servants either torn apart or converted into part of the shambling horde.

But here the little brat stood, completely unaware of who Theron was and who Theron _had_. There was so much to laugh about and he kept as much of it as he could behind his lips.

He ordered his thoughts as quickly as he could. What to do with this now? He knew right away that he did not wish to tell the child that he had the bloodsucker. What he'd gleaned from his reports told him that they cared deeply for one another. He still suspected that the bloodsucker controlled him to some degree – why else would the younger one not have put a stake through him at the first opportunity?

After all, Theron had done that to his own mother when she'd fallen prey to the bloodsuckers and risen again. It was what should be done. Nothing he'd ever seen had told him otherwise.

He could not stay here for all that long, though. He'd told the truth; he'd taken a different turn while he'd been on the way to find the magician who would provide what he wanted. It was a shortcut; he didn't want to be gone all that long, not with the warrior from his superiors coming soon. The magic available to Zombie Master would enable them to travel very quickly.

Now he offered one of his most pleasant smiles. "I trust everything is fine at home?" Oh, he knew it wasn't. He would have to send a horde that way – perhaps one of the larger ones. Without anyone there to command the defenses, he would easily be able to overwhelm it. Though he did want to watch. There were so many _options_.

"No," Marufuji Shou said with a quick, nervous shake of his head, his eyes darting this way and that. "Everything's fine. I was just out for a little air."

Theron stifled another chuckle. "You've come quite a distance for a little air." Of course he did have that adorable spirit with him. That would widen his territory by a good margin. It did make him wonder if the young man knew that _something_ had happened to his brother.

Shou tensed at that. He didn't quite back away, but he looked ready to dart away at the first genuine provocation. Theron did everything that he could to look harmless. He really wasn't certain if he succeeded. He wasn't very good at being harmless.

"I can go where I want. My brother rules this area, and I can defend myself," Marufuji declared, one hand gong to the deck holder at his belt. "Thanks for getting rid of those zombies but I need to go now." He hesitated for a second, a definite hint of curiosity flaring up behind his eyes before he continued. "You – haven't seen my brother out here, have you?"

Theron turned his lips down. They wanted to go up, but he forced them down regardless. "Is he out and about, then? I haven't seen him – though I can't really be certain if I'd recognize him. Descriptions don't always do the real person justice, you know."

That got a bit of a nod and the young man started to move away. "I think he just went to visit a friend, that's all. But I wasn't sure if he was out here."

Theron could tell very well when someone lied. He could practically taste the deception dripping off of those words, and he thought almost anyone who heard the younger Marufuji's words would have done the same. He was a very poor liar. Most likely from lack of practice.

Of course, Theron lied almost from the time that he'd learned how to talk. It made life ever so much easier when he chose what those around him knew about him.

"Of course. Perhaps he's visiting some of the larger villages. I'm certain that he requires regular sustenance and those would provide it, wouldn't they?" He indicated one direction that would leave the child wandering around for hours without seeing the slightest hint of his brother.

Not to mention he already had an idea on what to do once he'd worn the younger Marufuji out. But that would come later.

Marufuji turned his attention in the direction that he'd indicated. Then he nodded. "I'll check." He raised a hand in a sort of farewell salute before remounting his machine and heading away into the night.

Theron watched silently as the other faded out of sight. He played a long game; he already needed to get the item that would restrain the bloodsucker. He didn't need to burden himself at the moment with a new captive. Not right now.

With that taken care of, he turned his steps back towards his goal, indulging himself now in a few quiet chuckles. What a pleasant evening this was, and with far more to come.

* * *

Shou hurried along, casting glances from one side to the other as he did, glad that he hung a fair distance above the ground. It meant there were few that could cross paths with him unless he wanted to, which meant he traveled very fast.

_Who was that?_ Just knowing the stranger's name didn't tell him who that guy _was_. Shou hadn't wanted to get away from someone that badly ever before. _I think I would rather have spent an entire evening with Lady Camula. Maybe._ He'd never quite been comfortable with the lady of the vampires, since she was why Ryou was a vampire now.

But the question on who that was hung in his mind, worrying at his thoughts. There wasn't anything about the encounter that should have worried him the way that it did – he'd had encounters like that before, sometimes. Perfectly polite and courteous strangers did exist.

And yet every instinct that Shou had screamed that he needed to stay as far away from that man and most of all, he needed to make certain that Ryou wasn't anywhere near him either. It didn't matter that he'd claimed not to have seen Ryou. Shou wasn't going to believe Ryou was safe until he saw it for himself.

Once he wouldn't have been so worried about his brother. But once, Ryou couldn't perish just by being put into sunlight or by a wooden stake. Or enraged by the lack of blood. Ryou was as strong as he'd ever been, if in different ways, but he'd become weaker in some ways as well.

So Shou looked out for him. Shou made sure that he had a safe home in the mansion and that everyone there remained absolutely loyal to his brother or to him. Ever since he'd first set foot in the mansion, he'd done everything within his power to help his brother.

The moment that he'd found out what happened to his parents, he'd dedicated his life to his brother, to keeping him safe. He vividly remembered – sometimes more often than he would have liked – that moment when he'd turned the corner and seen the mob outside of their home.

* * *

"Monsters! Parents of monsters!" The calls rose up loud as some of the townsfolk shook improvised weapons – and not so improvised, with some of them waving sharpened blades and torches. "How dare you! How dare you! Kill them! Kill them all! The whole monstrous family!"

Shou couldn't tell exactly who led the shouting, but later he had a pretty good idea – the parents of the bully that Ryou drained. He had no idea then of how they'd found out so fast or how the mob gathered with such speed – he wasn't sure if he'd ever know, really. But there they were, even as the night grew darker around them.

His mother appeared in the doorway, head held high, eyes bright in confusion and anger. "What are you talking abut? What's got "

She never had the chance to finish the sentence. Hot in rage, someone threw a torch at her. It lit her gown on fire almost at once, flames rising around her as if by magic. She screamed, stumbling backwards, and Shou cried out in shock, reaching towards her even from halfway across the square.

"Mother! Father!" He wanted to get there. He wanted to get his parents out of there and they could find a new place to live, maybe with Ryou – preferably with Ryou – far away from here. These were their _neighbors_. They'd known them for years – for all of their lives. And yet not only did they turn on them so very quickly, everyone in that mob bayed for their blood.

He could hear his father yelling in fury, though the words were cut off a heartbeat later by a sound that Shou remembered for the rest of his life – those words choked off by a pained cry and a tiny sound, all but lost in the raging of the mob. Shou thought later it was the sound of his father's body falling, riddled by crossbow bolts. He learned about that part of it later, when others who could gain the information without being killed for it told him.

But he could tell what happened after that easily enough. It was impossible even for him, as he was running, to miss the blast of fiery energy that struck the very heart of their home and shattered it, rendering it down from solid stone and good wood to a pile of broken ruins. He cast a quick glance over his shoulder, enough to see the people cheering and the ruins on fire.

Then he turned onward and fled into the night, a terrible emptiness flowering within himself. His parents were dead. He knew it in the deepest part of his heart. He had never experienced anything this close. For years people told him his brother was dead, but he'd never believed that for a single moment. He'd been right – sort of – but before he'd even had the chance to tell this to his parents, to let them decide on what they could do from there, now everything fell into ruin around him.

Who? Who had told? How could they have told _that soon_? Shouldn't that guy's parents have still been raging and weeping instead of calling for pitchforks and torches and condemning his own parents to death without even letting them speak in their defense?

Without them even knowing what had happened? They hadn't known; Shou knew that very clearly. Just that morning he'd mentioned his brother, and they'd tried to gently reassure him that Ryou would be proud of him, but he wasn't ever going to come back, and he needed to learn to move beyond his conviction that Ryou was still alive.

Shou had nothing but what he had on him – one suit of clothes and his dueling deck. Nothing that he could trade for food or shelter. He could call his spirits into life, though not for more than an hour or so at a time. He'd been getting stronger with that, but at most he'd just be able to make it to the next town over. Maybe. If he were lucky.

And doing that still wouldn't get him any food. He could pick up a few things in the woods, maybe. A stream tumbled down that he could get water from. He wasn't going to die of starvation. Maybe he could go back – later – and see if he could find Fubuki. Fubuki would help him.

Fubuki had already been making plans to leave, especially since Asuka decided to become a mercenary and start traveling the world. He hadn't left yet but Shou had a pretty good idea that he would be making his plans to do so very soon.

He could get food and drink at least from Fubuki. After that he would start traveling. He needed to find Ryou – again – and tell him what happened. Then they could decide what to do together.

If he could find Ryou. Where would a vampire be? He'd already fed – Shou couldn't bring himself to be that upset, not when he'd never liked the guy anyway and not when he had his brother back – but the sun would rise and Ryou would have to be out of it. He would have to look and while Ryou promised to find him, Shou had no idea of how long that would take.

Shou wasn't sure of how long he ran or where he went. He didn't even think that he cared that much, as long as it was away from the nightmare that had been his home only scant hours earlier. When he finally pitched to a halt he couldn't see the town anymore and he could barely keep himself on his feet. Seeing a thick bush nearby, he stumbled underneath it, curled himself up under the branches, and fell into the deepest sleep he'd ever had in his life.

What happened when he woke up made him wish he'd perhaps not slept so deep.

* * *

Shou tried very hard not to think of those horrible days. Meeting Ryou again and then having to deal with his parents being murdered wasn't one of the better days of his life and the week that followed it hadn't been any better.

But _that_ led to his life with his brother now, and he wouldn't turn that down for anything at all.

Shou pulled his thoughts together long enough to check the area. He hadn't seen anything that resembled Ryou or anyone else who might possibly know where Ryou might be since he'd left Theron. Checking the other side wasn't that bad of an idea; Tesni's warriors would not be able to move as fast as he could, which meant he'd be able to cover more ground.

He still couldn't shake the feeling that there was something he'd missed somewhere. He couldn't pin it down and all it really felt like was a mere sensation of distrust.

"Come on, Mother, we're almost there," a voice drifted towards him on the wind, and he turned in that direction, indicating to his ride to wait for a few moments. He peered through the night shadows until he saw what was there – who was there.

Two women made their way along, each of them armed, and one of them keeping a sharp eye on the world around them. Their clothes reflected hard travel, with tears and rips in the once-sturdy fabric, and the older woman seemed to have lost a shoe somewhere along their trek. Between the two of them she had more damage done to her garments, which looked to have started off as the normal wear of a butcher, clothes wrapped close to them that could be easily washed clean of blood.

"Are we?" Her mother gasped, her feet stumbling. "I don't even know where we are anymore."

Shou only hesitated for a moment. He wasn't sure of where they were going, but he knew the area around here well enough. He could probably give directions – and he wanted to know why they looked this beat up. He nudged his mount to take him down closer.

"Excuse me," he said, catching their attention. Both of them stared up at him, the younger woman moving so she stood between him and her mother. "Where are you going? And what happened?"

"Why should we tell you?" The younger woman asked, her eyes narrowed. Something about her reminded him of his brother – not in the looks, but in the way that she moved, cautious and wary, a predator without prey but very much aware they were being hunted.

After living with Ryou all this time, Shou knew very well that hunted predators were the most dangerous. So he didn't try to scare them. That wouldn't end well.

"Because I can help you. I'm Marufuji Shou. My brother rules this area." He doubted that they had seen Ryou. They looked too wary right now.

The two of them exchanged glances before looking back at Shou. "Your brother?" The older woman asked cautiously. "Who is he?"

"Marufuji Ryou. Do you know him?"

Both shook their heads, then the older woman shifted forward a single step. "If he's the ruler here, then he needs to know – the village of Sunsdown has been completely overrun and destroyed by a zombie horde. I don't know if there are any other survivors, but I doubt it."

Shou frowned; more zombies? "I'll take you to the mansion," he said at last. "You can get some rest there and when he comes home you can tell him, if he doesn't already know." That could be why Ryou wasn't around. He'd possibly run into those zombies and was even now putting them all down. He did regret that he'd not be able to see that. Watching Ryou in action would always be a pleasure of his.

He dropped a little lower. "Who are you?" He didn't get the same sense of danger from them as he did from Theron. The looked too exhausted to even worry about mincing words and offering teasing hints that probably meant nothing at all.

"I'm Ayaka. I was the butcher in Sunsdown. This is my daughter Nou." The older woman nodded towards the other. Shou nodded his greeting before turning Gyroid towards the mansion. Even without Ryou at home, Cook Kabayama would be glad of more living people to appreciate his talents and Tesni would definitely want to know what was going on.

And maybe this meant that Ryou would be home after he dealt with this zombie issue.

* * *

**To Be Continued**

**Notes:** As of August 5, 2020, this story is on indefinite hiatus. I intended to restart in September, but YGO GX Month came up and it gave me ideas. So, once that's taken care of, I'll return to my WIPs.


End file.
